■^^ 



..,^ ■^. 



.H -7^. 



^. V-*- 



..N5> -^C^ 



^/. v^^^ 






y^ gl 



■b 



1 a 



I 




* 



^ 




JAMES MADISON, AGE 76 

Bust by John H. J. Browere 

Made in 1827. In possession of the Virginia Historical Society at Richmond, 
and now publislied for the first time. 



I', 



THE LIFE OF 



JAMES MADISON 



BY 



GAILLARD HUNT 

Editor of 
The Writings of James Madison 






NEW YORK 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO. 
1902 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

FEB tl 1903 

Copyright Entry 

CLASS Ct XXc No 

COPY A. 



Copyright, igoz, by 

Doubleday, Page & Co. 

Published, November, 1902 






HARRY A. GARFIELD, Esq. 

'^^EARLT a generation has passed since you and 
I as boys used to settle the affairs of state, which 
your father with the assistance of mine was trying to 
solve. The friendship we formed then tif?ie has deep- 
ened. On my part it is based not only upon our 
youthful association, but upon an understanding of your 
character and of the purpose you have set before your- 
self of striving to mitigate so?ne of the evils in govern- 
ment which have developed since the Constitution left 
the hands of Madison and his coadjutors. And so I 
dedicate this book to you as a token of my friendship 
and as a tribute to your work. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 






PAGE 


I. 


The Amendment to the Bill of 


Rights . 


I 


II. 


Princeton .... 


• 


13 


III. 


Family Influences . 


• • 


• 19 


IV. 


Virginia Finances . 


. 


. 24 


V. 


Federal Finances 


, 


• 32 


VI. 


The Surrender of the "Back Lands ' 


• 44 


VII. 


The Mississippi Question 


. 


• 54 


VIII. 


Virginia Emancipationists 


. 


67 


IX. 


Religious Liberty- 


. 


• 77 


X. 


How the Annapolis Convention 


was Called 


• 87 


XI. 


The Annapolis Convention 


. 


95 


XII. 


Preparing for the Great Convention 


108 


XIII. 


The Great Convention I 




116 


XIV. 


The Great Convention II 




127 


XV. 


Forming the Lines 




137 


XVI. 


Madison's Triumph 




148 


XVII. 


New York and Virginia . 




156 


XVIII. 


The Leader of the House 




167 


XIX. 


" Funding and Assumption " . 




179 


XX. 


The Struggle for the Capital . 




. 189 


XXI. 


The Implied Powers 




, 201 


XXII. 


Madison as a Partisan 




■ 213 


XXIII. 


The Jay Treaty . 




223 


XXIV. 


The National Gazette 




235 


XXV. 


Dolly Payne .... 




241 


XXVI. 


The Virginia Resolutions 




249 


XXVII. 


The Madison Doctrine and Nullification 


259 


XXVIII. 


The Secretary of State . 


. • 


271 


XXIX. 


Louisiana .... 


. 


285 



vn 



/ 



viu 

CHAPTER 

XXX. 

XXXI. 

XXXII. 

XXXIII. 

XXXIV. 

XXXV. 

XXXVI. 

XXXVII. 



CONTENTS 

The Battle of the Diplomats 
The Declaration of War 
The War President 
The Gloomy Federalists 

Peace . • • • 
The Retired Statesman . 

Private Life at Montpelier 

The End 



PAGE 

. 299 

• 316 
. 328 

• 340 

• 353 
. 364 

• 375 
. 383 



\ 



THE LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 



THE 
LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

CHAPTER I 

THE AMENDMENT TO THE BILL OF RIGHTS 

The house of burgesses of Virginia held its last ses- 
sion May 6, 1776, when forty-five members, as- 
sembling at Williamsburg, declared that the ancient 
constitution of the colony had been subverted by the 
King and Parliament of Great Britain. Accordingly, 
they disbanded, and the last official evidence of the sub- 
jection of Virginia to Great Britain disappeared. An- 
other body met on the same day to inaugurate the new- 
era of independence. PubHc opinion had unw^ilHngly 
reached the point of desiring separation. It was domi- 
nated by the wealthy and educated men, and was in con- 
sequence conservative, and clung to the hope of an amic- 
able settlement of differences ; but events forced the peo- 
ple into a position of irrevocable rebellion. The final 
circumstances were: September i, 1775, Lord Dunmore, 
the rdyal governor, seized the printing-press of John Holt 
because of his seditious articles; October 26, George 
Nicholas fired the first shot of the Revolution at one of 
Dunmore's tenders sent to destroy the town of Hampton ; 
November 7, Dunmore issued his infamous proclamation, 
urging "all indented servants, negroes or others," to 
secure their freedom by joining in the forcible reduction 
of the colony; December 8, Leslie's attack on Woodford 
near Norfolk was repulsed; January i, 1776, Norfolk, 
the largest city in Virginia, was bombarded and burned. 



2 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

Added to the grievances which had gone before, these 
made reconciHation an impossibihty, and the Virginians 
who still adhered to the crow^n were an unimportant 
minority. 

There was no doubt, therefore, that the convention of 
May, 1776, which was held, at the invitation of the Con- 
tinental Congress, to institute a new government, would 
do so. The elections of the delegates w^ere spirited,* 
but the rivalry between the candidates was rather per- 
sonal than political, and there was no party in the field 
opposed to independence. The result of the elections 
was an assemblage, not of young or untried men, but of 
the ablest, most experienced, and most trusted men in 
the colony. In organizing, Edmund Pendleton, who 
had been president of the Convention of the year before, 
after Peyton Randolph's death, was chosen to preside 
over the new Convention. He was fifty-two years old, 
and had held offices of trust for more than twenty years, 
being at different times justice of the peace for Caroline 
County, a member of the House of Burgesses, president 
of the Caroline Court, county lieutenant, member of the 
Continental Congress of 1775, and president of the Com- 
mittee of Safety. These distinctions he had attained, 
as he says in a brief autobiography,! "without classical 
education, without patrimony, without what is called 
the influence of family connection, and without solicita- 
tion." His remarkable charm of manner and easy and 
graceful eloquence made him a model presiding officer. 
Before the convention met he was a Whig, and was sus- 
pected of British proclivities, but in reality his attitude 
was merely that of the most conservative wing of the 
patriot party. "When the dispute with Great Britain 
arose, " he says, "a redress of grievances and not a revo- 
lution of government was my wish. In this I was firm 
but temperate; and whilst I was endeavoring to raise 

*Kate Mason Roland's "Life, Correspondence and Speeches of 
George Mason," I, 222. 

t MS. in the possession of Erasmus Taylor, Esq., of Orange County, 
Virginia. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 3 

the spirits of the timid to a general united opposition, by 
stating to the uninformed the real merits of the dispute, 
I opposed and endeavoured to moderate the violent and 
fiery who were for plunging us into rash measures, and 
had the happiness to find a majority of the public bodies 
confirmed my sentiments, which, I believe, was the cor- 
ner-stone of our success. " 

The master spirit of the Convention was George Mason, 
of Gunston Hall, also a man past the meridian of life, and 
also untouched by radicalism. Unlike Pendleton, he 
avoided public office whenever he could, and had per- 
formed his first official service in 1775, when he took 
Washington's place in the Colonial Convention, upon 
Washington's appointment to the command of the Con- 
tinental Army. He was a sound scholar, especially in 
the legislative and political history of England, and until 
the Revolution his sympathies were those of an English- 
man, and liberty meant to him English liberty. He was 
free from personal ambition, strong and immovable in 
his convictions, forceful and uncompromising in debate. 
His personal influence with men of consequence was prob- 
ably as great as that of any man in Virginia, and the chief 
work of the Convention fell to his hands. Patrick Henry 
resigned his military command in disgust just in time to 
be elected a member, but the Convention was a body with 
constructive work before it, and Henry's genius lay not 
in that direction. The power he exerted in the proceed- 
ings of the Convention was not as great as that which had 
swept people along with him before, or which he exer- 
cised afterwards upon successive legislatures of the State. 

According to Edmund Randolph, who was one of the 
few young members, those of the Convention who were 
most in the public eye, beside Mason, Pendleton and 
Henry, were James Mercer, Robert Carter Nicholas, 
Richard Bland, Thomas Ludwell Lee, Richard Henry 
Lee, George Wythe, John Blair, and, younger than any 
of them, and one of the youngest of all the members, 
James Madison, Jr., of Orange County. "Until the meet- 



4 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

ing of this Convention,"* says Randolph, "he was un- 
known at the metropoHs. He was edticated at Princeton 
College in New Jersey, and had been laborious in his 
studies which ranged beyond strict academic limits, but 
were of that elementary cast, subservient in their general 
principles to any science which he might choose to culti- 
vate in detail. As a classical scholar he was mature, as 
a student of belles lettres, his fancy animated his 
judgment ; and his judgment, without damping his fancy, 
excluded by the soundness of criticism, every propensity 
to tinsel and glitter. . . . His diffidence went 
hand in hand with his morals, which repelled vice, 
howsoever fashionable. In Convention debate, his 
lips were never unsealed except to some member, 
who happened to sit near him; and he who had 
once partaken of the rich banquet of his remarks, did not 
fail to wish daily to sit within the reach of his conversa- 
tion. It could not be othei^wise; for although his age 
and the deference which in fewer circles had been paid 
to him, were apt to tincture him with pedantry he de- 
livered himself without aft'ectation upon Grecian, Roman 
and English history, from a well digested fund, a sure 
presage of eminence. A very sensible foreigner observed 
of him, that he never uttered anything which was not 
appropriate, and not connected with some general prin- 
ciple of importance. Even when he commented upon 
the dignity with which Pendleton filled the chair, it was 
in that philosophic spirit, which looks for personal dig- 
nity in officers of a republic as well as of a monarchy. 
While he thrilled with the ecstasies of Henry's eloquence, 
and extolled his skill in commanding the audience, he 
detected what might be faulty in his reasoning. Madi- 
son was enviable in being among the few young men 
who were not inflated by early flattery and could con- 
tent themselves with throwing out in social discourse 
jewels which the artifice of a barren mind would have 
treasured up for gaudy occasions." 

* MS. History of Virginia, in Virginia Historical Society at Richmond. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 5 

When Madison was elected to the Convention he was 
twenty-five years of age, and he looked younger than he 
really was. He was five feet six and a quarter inches tall,* 
and his body was thin and delicate. His pale face was 
lighted tip by a pair of hazel eyes which were ready to 
reflect a quiet humour, but his features were irregular 
and not handsome, and his countenance bespoke the 
suffering of bad health. His hair was light, combed 
back and gathered in a small queue behind, tied with a 
plain ribbon. He was clothed so soberly that he looked 
more like a dissenting divine than the heir of a planter 
of large estate, and before his election his neighbours de- 
clared he was more of a minister than a statesman. This 
was the first large assemblage of men in which he had 
ever taken part, and he shrank timidly from observation, 
and rose only once to offer a motion, which, however, he 
did not support with a speech. Randolph's statement 
that he was one of the delegates most in the public eye is 
doubtless an exaggeration. He was known as the son of 
James Madison, lieutenant of Orange County, and prob- 
ably the most influential man in it, but his own reputa- 
tion was merely that of a precocious young scholar who 
had shown zeal for the Revolutionary cause. He met 
the great men of the Convention for the first time, and 
did not pretend to rank with them. 

The great question before the Convention was an- 
nounced by the president, when he said that the time 
had come when it was necessary to decide whether the 
present condition of public affairs could be continued. 
On May 15 the answer came in a clarion note, and the 
Convention instructed the delegates of Virginia in the 
Continental Congress, "to propose to that respectable 
body to declare the united colonies free and independent 
states, absolved from all allegiance to or dependence 
upon the crown or Parliament of Great Britain, and that 
they give the assent of this colony to such Declaration, 
and to whatever measures may be thought proper and 

* Randall's "Jefferson," III, 262. 



6 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

necessary by the Congress for forming alliances, and a 
confederation of the colonies." It was also resolved 
that a committee be appointed to prepare a Declaration 
of Rights and Plan of Government for the colony. Who 
drew up the instructions is not known. It was an im- 
pression of Madison's, expressed m.any years afterwards, 
that they originated in a letter from Thomas Jefferson, 
then in Philadelphia, to George Wythe; but Edmund 
Randolph declared they were drafted by Pendleton and 
proposed by Nelson. The point is not important, as 
the people had resolved on independence, and resolutions 
to that effect would have been offered by one delegate 
or another. Charles Patterson and John Cabell, the 
delegates from Buckingham County, had these orders 
from their constituents: "We instruct you to cause a 
total and final separation from Great Britain to take 
place as soon as possible; and a constitution to be es- 
tablished, with a full representation and free and fre- 
quent elections." The inhabitants of Augusta and 
Transylvania and on the rivers Watauga and Holstein 
sent similar messages,* and those parts of the colony 
which made no specific expressions fully expected the 
action that was taken. On the same day with the 
passage of the resolutions thirty-two members were ap- 
pointed a committee to prepare a Declaration of Rights 
and Plan of Government. In the first list Madison's 
name did not appear, for he did not take his seat till the 
1 6th, but on that day, upon special motion, he was added. 
Two days later, May i8, George Mason arrived, and he 
too was added to the committee, and became virtually 
its head, and wrote the Declaration of Rights which 
preceded the Constitution and was an enunciation of 
the principles upon which it was based. These princi- 
ples were English, — those of Magna Charta, the Petition 
of Rights, the Acts of the Long Parliament, and the 
doctrines of the Revolution of 1688 as expounded by 

* Bancroft's "History of the United States," VIII, 376. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 7 

Locke.* But the constitution of society in Virginia 
was also English, and some of the members of the com- 
mittee had an abiding fear of the common people and 
a deep-rooted belief in the superior rights of an upper 
class. The first clause of the Declaration of Rights, 
proclaiming the equal rights of all men to freedom and 
independence, met with strenuous opposition, and called 
forth numerous amendments from aristocratic members, 
Robert Carter Nicholas, especially, expressing the fear 
that it might prove the forerunner of civil convulsions. 
A number of the suggestions offered to other points in 
the Declaration were absorbed by Mason, and their best 
features were embodied in his final draft. On Monday, 
May 27, Archibald Gary, chairman of the committee, I 
reported the Declaration to the Convention; it was dis- 
cussed in committee of the whole, several amendments 
were accepted, and June 12 it was adopted by a unani- 
mous vote. It declared that all men were bom equally 
free, and with inherent rights of which they could not 
divest their posterity — life, liberty, the means of acquir- 
ing property and pursuing happiness ; that all power was 
vested in and derived from the people ; that government 
was instituted for the benefit of the people, and when it 
failed to fulfil this purpose the people had a right to 
change it; that no offices should be hereditary; that 
the legislative and executive powers should be distinct 
from the judicative, and for the two former there should 
be frequent elections; that elections ought to be free; 
that there should be no arbitrary power of suspending 
laws, nor excessive bail ; that no man should be deprived 
of his liberty except by law, and trial by jury should be 
preserved ; that there should be freedom of the press ; that 
standing armies should be avoided, and the military 
subordinated to the civil power; and that there should 
be free exercise of religion. Such was the Declaration 

* See Rives' " Life and Times of James Madison, " I, 119 et seq.; also 
Henry's " Life, Correspondence and Speeches of Patrick Henry, " I, 405, 
et seq. 



8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

which preceded the Declaration of Independence by 
nearly a month, and which contained within it all the 
general principles of the Declaration of Independence. 
It has stood at the head of the five Constitutions that 
Virginia has had, and either in form or in substance was 
embodied in the first Constitutions of New York, Pennsyl- 
vania, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maryland, Dela- 
ware and North Carolina, of the original States, while it 
has since been incorporated into the Constitution of 
every State of the Union. 

The Declaration of Rights having been agreed to, the 
Convention proceeded to construct the Constitution 
itself, and on June 29 it was finally agreed upon. The 
preamble was taken from a plan of government which 
Jefferson sent Pendleton by Wythe, who was returning 
from Philadelphia, and a few of the other features of 
Jefferson's plan were included. The chief draftsman 
of the Constitution was, however. Mason; Madison had 
no hand in it, nor did he approve of all its provisions, or 
of the method of its adoption. 

The last section of the Bill of Rights, relating to re- 
ligious liberty, read as follows: 

"Sec. 16. That religion, or the duty which we owe 
to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be 
directed only by reason and conviction, and therefore 
all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, 
according to the dictates of conscience ; and that it is the 
mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance, 
and charity towards each other. " 

This was the result of a compromise, and differed 
materially from the clause as first introduced by Mason. 
It then read: "That Religion, or the duty which we 
owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, 
can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by 
force or violence; and therefore, that all men should 
enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion, 
according to the dictates of conscience, unpunished, 
and unrestrained by the magistrates, unless under colour 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 9 

of religion any man disturb the peace, the happiness, 
or safety of society. And that it is the mutual duty of all 
to practise Christian forbearance, love and charity to- 
wards each other." 

The single occasion when Madison's voice was heard 
in the Convention was when he offered this amendment : 

" That Religion, or the duty we owe to our Creator, and 
the manner of discharging it, being under the direction 
of reason and conviction only, not of violence or com- 
pulsion, all men are equally entitled to the full and free 
exercise of it, according to the dictates of conscience; 
and therefore that no man or class of men, ought, on 
account of religion, to be invested with peculiar emolu- 
ments or privileges, nor subjected to any penalties or 
disabilities, unless under colour of religion, the preserva- 
tion of equal liberty and the existence of the state be 
manifestly endangered." 

This was the day of an established church, and in Vir- 
g'nia dissenters were suffered to exist only by favour, 
and were often persecuted. The section of the Declara- 
tion of Rights, as it was adopted, declared the persecti- 
tions unjust, but took no ground inconsistent with the 
existence of a state church. It was preferable to the 
original draft, which used the word toleration, thus leav- 
ing room for the implication of permission of free exercise 
of religion, instead of proclaiming it as a right. Madison's 
amendment, as he offered it, not only proclaimed this 
right, but made a state church or any state interference 
with religious matters an impossibility. The bill for 
assessments for support of teachers of the Christian 
religion, which was afterwards introduced in the As- 
sembly, and which he and his friends defeated in 1786, 
would have been in direct conflict with the proposed 
declaration that "no man or class of men, ought, on 
account of religion, to be invested with peculiar emolu- 
ments or privileges," and if Madison's amendment had 
been adopted the long struggle over this and kindred 
measures would not have occurred. Nor would there 



lo LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

have been occasion for the famous bill for religious free- 
dom which Jefferson wrote, and which Madison finally 
carried through the Assembly ten years afte ; his amend- 
ment to the Declaration of Rights had been shorn of its 
far-reaching power. The pith of Jefferson's bill was: 
' ' That no man should be compelled to f equent or sup- 
port any religious worship, place or ministry, nor shall 
be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his 
body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of 
his religious opinion or belief, " and this was hardly more 
than Madison had said. 

The proposed amendment was an expression of what 
was at the time he offered it the strongest sentiment 
James Madison possessed, and it came from a man who 
was deeply religious. After finishing his course at 
Princeton he returned to the plantat on in Virginia 
much enfeebled by overstudy and not expecting a long 
life. His mind was charged with religious inquiry and 
his mental life was solitary. The consequent intro- 
spection in which he indulged was tinctured by the 
Presbyterianism under which he had lived at Princeton. 
Writing, November 9, 1772, to his college friend, William 
Bradford, afterwards Attorney-General of the United 
States, concerning expectations of happiness and pros- 
perity in life, which he said were natural to all men, he 
remarked that they were harmless provided they were 
not allowed "to intercept our views toward a future 
state." We must, he added, always keep a watch on 
ourselves, lest while building ideal monuments of re- 
nown and bliss on earth, "we neglect to have our names 
enrolled in the annals of Heaven." He would have 
Bradford season his other studies with "a little divinity 
now and then, which, like the philosopher's stone in the 
hands of a good man, will turn them and every lawful 
acquirement into the nature of itself, and make them 
more precious than fine gold. " 

All of his family surroundings were strongly religious. 
His father was vestryman of St. Thomas' parish and a 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON ii 

lay delegate to the Episcopal Convention of 1776; his 
mother was a pious communicant; his second cousin 
and friend of the same name, James Madison, who became 
president of William and Mary College in 1777 and after- 
wards Bishop of Virginia, had recently returned from 
England, a consecrated Episcopal clergyman. His tutor 
before he went to Princeton was an Episcopal clergy- 
man. Rev. Thomas Martin, who lived in his father's 
house, and for whom Madison had a high regard. But 
at Princeton he breathed another atmosphere, and he 
saw in New Jersey and Pennsylvania a greater degree 
of religious freedom than existed in Virginia. Especially 
in the section of the State where he lived he saw greater 
persecution of dissenters than existed in other portions 
of the State. Nevertheless, the dissenters were rapidly 
increasing in numbers about him, daily growing stronger 
as the established church grew weaker. That such should 
be the result was only natural, for the Episcopal Church 
in Virginia was steeped in scandal. Quarrels, contests 
of authority, expulsions and general demoralization 
existed. The livings were so poor that only the lower 
order of ministers came from England or Scotland to 
fill them. Without instancing the scores of individual 
cases in proof of the bad condition, it will be sufficient 
to quote the sweeping condemnation of Bishop Meade: 
"At no time from its first establishment was the moral 
and religious condition of the church in Virginia even 
tolerably good."* Madison's contempt for the church 
as a state institution knew no bounds. Writing to 
Bradford, January 24, 1774, he said: "If the Church 
of England had been the established and general re- 
ligion in all the northern colonies as it has been among 
us here, and uninterrupted tranquillity had prevailed 
throughout the continent, it is clear to me that slavery 
and subjection might and could have been gradually in- 
sinuated among us. Union of religious sentiment begets 
a surprising confidence, and ecclesiastical establishments 

*" Old Churches and Families of Virginia, " by Bishop Meade, II, 351 



i 
/I 



12 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

tend to great ignorance and corruption ; all of which 
facilitates the execution of mischievous projects. " 

Active persecution of the Baptists was in progress 
when he wrote, and he had about this time the experi- 
ence of standing by the jail in Orange and hearing several 
Baptist ministers, who had been imprisoned because of 
their opinions, preach through the prison bars. And 
thus it was that while he was studying theology and 
writing erudite notes upon the gospels, and was himself 
an attendant at the Episcopal church, he believed that 
human liberty was impossible of attainment, unless 
legislative interference in concerns of conscience dis- 
appeared from the face of the earth. 

In constructing his amendment, Madison acted alone, 
and made no effort to save it from being moulded into 
the milder paragraph finally adopted. He must have 
realized that he was in advance of his colleagues, for a 
majority of them did then favour state control of religion. 
There was one Virginian of influence, however, who 
would have sided with Madison ; but Thomas Jefferson 
was busy in the larger field at Philadelphia. In October, 
1776, six months after the Convention adjourned, he 
came to Williamsburg to take his seat in the new As- 
sembly, of which Madison also was a member, and he 
and Madison met for the first time. They lived in ad- 
joining counties, but Jefferson was eight years older 
than Madison, and as a successful lawyer and busy man 
of affairs, his pathway had not crossed that of the modest 
bookworm. In the Assembly their service threw them 
together, for both were members of the Committee on 
Privileges and Elections. There then began that ex- 
traordinary friendship which lasted without interrup- 
tion for fifty years, when Jefferson died. Their strong 
personal affection went hand in hand with a mutual ad- 
miration and general co-operation in public life which 
have no parallel in our history. This co-operation, how- 
ever, did not attain its full proportions until parties 
formed after the Constitution of the United States was 
adopted. 



CHAPTER II 

PRINCETON 

One reason why the ruHng class in Virginia acted 
with such unanimity in the Convention of 1776 and other 
crises of the Revolution was that a large proportion of 
them had received the same kind of education. This 
usually came first from clergymen of the established 
church, who added to the scanty subsistence of their 
livings by teaching. Happily, these were the better 
class of parsons, the others not having the industry or 
stability necessary for the task. From this schooling 
the regular course was to go to "Their Majesties' Royal 
College of William and Mary, " which was one of the four 
chief colleges of the colonies, the other three being 
Harvard, Yale and Princeton. To call the names of 
notable Virginians in the Revolution is almost to call 
a roll of graduates of William and Mary. Peyton Ran- ,-^ 
dolph, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, Archibald ' 
Cary, Paul Carrington, William Cabell, George Wythe, 
Thomes Jefferson, Edmund Randolph, James Monroe, 
James ]\IcClurg, were all William and Mary men. Seven 
of the eleven members of the Committee of Correspond- 
ence appointed March 12, 1773; six out of eleven of the 
Committee of Safety appointed by the Virginia Conven- 
tion of 1775; eleven out of thirty- two of the committee 
that drew up the Declaration of Rights, and four of the 
seven Virginia members who signed the Declaration of 
Independence were from that college. The small pro- 
portion of well-to-do Virginia boys who went elsewhere 
were educated in England or by private tutors, and still 
fewer went to the Pennsylvania colleges or to the College 
of New Jersey.* 

*" William and Mary Quarterly, " VII, i et seq. 

13 



I'l 



14 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

Among the last-named was James Madison, and his rud- 
imentary schooHng came from a Scotchman who was not a 
divine. Donald Robertson kept a school in King and 
Queen Coiinty, and there the boy was sent at the age of 
twelve. He studied the usua class ca course, and was 
taught Spanish and French besides. These, as he explained 
in after life, he learned as dead languages ; and when he 
was at Princeton, being called upon to act as interpreter 
between a visiting Frenchman and Dr. Witherspoon, he 
discovered that, while he was able by hard attention to 
pick out a few words that the Frenchman spoke, the 
latter was unable to understand a single word of Madi- 
son's French. He improved his accent afterwards, but 
never succeeded in ridding himself of the "Scotch French," 
as he called it, that Robertson had taught him.* From 
Robertson's school Madison came under the tuition of 
the Rev. Thomas Martin, of New Jersey a graduate of 
Princeton of the class of 1762, who was made rector of 
St. Thomas' parish in 1767, and who lived with the 
Madisons. 

When the time came for him to go to college, there 
were several reasons why William and Mary was not 
chosen. The boy's health had always been delicate, 
and Williamsburg was regarded as an unhealthful spot.f 
Also, there was unseemly strife at the college between 
the board of visitors and the faculty, and the president. 
Rev. William Horrocks, was unpopular. It may be, 
too, that the general infidelity which was actually rife 
at this institution, officially so orthodox, weighed against 
it. Princeton was the nearest of the other great colleges, 
and the tutor naturally urged his scholar to go there. 
He was seventeen years old when he entered the sopho- 
more class, and he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts 
in 1 771. He had the advantage of broader surround- 
ings than would have been possible if he had completed 

* This, it is stated upon contemporaneous authority, was one of Mad- 
ison's favourite after-dinner stories. Randall's "Jefferson," 11, 192, «. 

t " WiUiam and Mary Quarterly, " VII, 66. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 15 

his education elsewhere in America; for William and 
Mary was a local college, and so were Harvard and Yale, 
with few students coming from any other colony than 
the one in which each was situated. At the College of 
New Jersey, on the other hand, every colony was repre- 
sented among the students ; and while New Jersey had a 
few more than any other one colony, she had not a fourth 
part of all the students, the actual figures being, when 
Madison entered, only nineteen Jerseymen out of eighty- 
four students. Of the twelve students who graduated 
with Madison, only one, Charles McKnight, afterwards 
distinguished in the medical department of the army 
of the Revolution, came from New Jersey. Chief among 
Madison's companions in his own class were Gunning 
Bedford of Delaware, Hugh Henry Brackenridge of 
Pennsylvania, and Philip Freneau of New York. In the 
class below him was Aaron Burr, and here he met for the 
first time Henry Lee, a sophomore when he was a senior. 
His intimate associates were serious students — Caleb 
Wallace, who was ordained a Presbyterian clergyman 
and afterwards became a lawyer and judge of the Su- 
preme Court of Kentucky; Samuel Stanhope Smith, also 
a Presbyterian divine, the first president of Hampden 
Sidney College in Virginia and Witherspoon's successor 
as president of Princeton ; his brother, John Blair Smith, 
also a Presbyterian clerg^^man, who succeeded to the 
presidency of Hampden Sidney; and William Bradford, 
who studied divinity but preferred a lawyer's career. 

The most important act of Madison's undergraduate 
life was the founding of the American Whig Society in 
1769, for the purpose of cultivating literature, friend- 
ship and morality among the members, his associate 
founders being Samuel Stanhope Smith, Bradford, John 
Beatty, John Henry of Maryland, Nathaniel Irwin, 
Wallace, Bedford, Brackenridge, Freneau, and McKnight. 
It was a patriot organization and had for its object the 
reading of essays and holding of debates, and here, be- 
hind locked doors and among his friends, Madison had 



i6 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

his first practice in discussing questions of government 
which occupied his chief attention during the rest of his 
life. 

His favourite studies at college were the history of the 
free states of antiquity, and all subjects relating to gov- 
ernment. He was the deepest student in college, and 
for several months he spared only three hours out of the 
twenty-four for sleep.* Finding his constitution unable 
to endure the strain, he relaxed, but allowed himself only 
such an amount of sleep as was absolutely necessary to 
his health. He became famous for his conversation, 
and formed the centre of a circle which the other students 
deemed it a privilege to enter. Dr. Witherspoon re- 
marked to Thomas Jefferson, many years afterwards, 
that during Madison's whole college course "he had 
never known him to say or do an indiscreet thing. " He 
was too diffident to face a public audience, and those 
college honours which were given for oratorical achieve- 
ments were not for him. The contemporaneous account 
of the commencement exercises when he graduated 
contains this note: "Mr. James Madison was excused 
from taking any part in the exercises." The reason 
probably was that he was ill at the time. 

Having graduated, he remained a year longer to 
pursue advanced studies under Witherspoon. The course 
was essentially an ecclesiastical one, embracing chiefly 
Hebrew and ethics, and was pursued by students who 
intended to embrace the ministry as a career. Such an 
intention Madison doubtless had, but it was not definitely 
formed, and probably did not extend beyond a desire 
to sound his own mental and moral suitableness for a 
clergyman's life. At any rate, after leaving Princeton 
he never recorded any desire nor took any visible steps 
towards consummating the logical result of his post- 
graduate studies, t 

* " Eulogium," by James Barbour, who states that Madison informed 
him of this personally. 

t See "Memoir of James Madison, Founder of the American Whig 
Society," by Professor Henry Clay Cameron, in "The Centennial Cele- 
bration of the American Whig Society," Princeton, 187 1. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 17 

He left Princeton in 1772 and returned to Virginia. \ 
His nature had expanded in the varied social life of 
college and the congenial atmosphere of learning, and 
he chafed miserably at home. Probably, if he had been 
a free agent, he would have fled from the region of the 
established church and domestic slavery to Pennsyl- 
vania or New Jersey, where conditions were then more 
to his liking. Domestic exigencies, however, kept him 
at home. Thomas Martin, his old tutor, died in 1770, 
and Madison took his place as tutor to his younger 
brothers and sisters. Then came the transition period 
of the young man's life, when he was solitary and pur- 
poseless. His religious studies and enfeebled health 
darkened his thoughts, and he turned from poetry and 
romance, of which he had once been fond, to laborious 
reasonings on freedom of the will and elaborate studies - 
of the Scriptures The surrounding robust country life 
was not for him. The young Virginians of the time 
were, as a class, merry, easy livers, loving sports, horse- 
racing, cock-fighting, cudgelling and wrestling matches, 
fond of big gatherings and heavy feasts with miany toasts, 
visiting freely through the country-side, making love to 
their neighbours' daughters, quarrelling and fighting not 
a little, fond of dancing and of the fiddle, which many of 
them played; but at the age when Patrick Henry and 
Thomas Jefferson were mastering the intricacies of that 
instrument Madison's soul was wrapped in deep books 
and sombre reflections. He was a youth in years with- 
out a 3^outh's tastes or mind, and he found few associates. 
What was there for him to do in the world ? Life must 
have something more in it than the mere reading 
of books, roaming through the woods of Orange County, 
and imparting knowledge to a few boys and girls. There 
was ready for him a planter's life, or he might become a 
lawyer ; but before the decision was made came the great 
crisis in American affairs, and an unforeseen occupation 
opened for him. He wrote the reply of the Orange 
Committee, May 9, 1775, to "Captain Patrick Henry 



i8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

and the Gentlemen Independents of Hanover," and 
desired to enter the army. For this, however, he was 
entirely unfitted by reason of his physical deficiencies, 
and he occupied himself in recruiting others. Largely 
through his father's influence, he was elected a member 
of the Virginia Convention of 1776. 



CHAPTER III 

FAMILY INFLUENCES 

In embracing, as he did at the beginning, the patriot 
cause, Madison was unhampered by any regrets that 
might have come from a Hving family connection witli 
England. His second cousin James went to England a 
few years before the Revolution to be ordained as a 
priest, the voyage being necessary, because Virginia was 
under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Bishop of London 
and had no bishop of her own. He did not remain long, 
and formed no strong English ties. He was the only 
member of the family who received any part of his edu- 
cation outside of the colonies. England was not, there- 
fore, home to. the Madisons as it was to so many other 
American families. They were purely a colonial family, 
almost coeval with the Anglo-Saxon settlement of the 
New World, and the record did not extend beyond that. 

"Captain Isaac Maddyson, " an artisan, one of the 
colonists of 1623, and mentioned in John Smith's history 
as a good Indian-fighter, was the first Madison to reach 
the New World.* A hundred years later, November 15, 
1723, his descendant, Ambrose Madison, f in conjunction 

* Mr. Gay in his " Life of Madison, " denies that Isaac Madison v*ras 
an ancestor of the Virginia Madisons, but Mr. Rives, whose source of 
information was the family tradition, asserts that he was. 

t John Madison, ship carpenter, patented lands in 1653 in Gloucester 
County; his son John was sheriff of King and Queen County in 1704; 
his son was Ambrose, who married Frances Taylor, August 24, 1721, 
Zachary Taylor, President of the United States, being her collateral 
descendant. Ambrose Madison's third child, Frances, great-aunt of 
James Madison, Jr., married Jacob Hite, who was killed by the Indians, 
July, 1776. James Madison and Eleanor Conway had the following 
issue: James, bom March 16, 1751, died June 28, 1836; Frances, born 
June 18, 1753; Ambrose, bom January 27, 1755, died October — , 1793, 
Catlett, bom February 10, 1758, died March 8, 1758; Nelly Conway, 
born February 4, 1760, married Isaac Hite, January 2, 1783; William, 
bom May 5, 1762, married Fanny Throckmorton, died July 20, 1843; 
Sarah, bom August 27, 1764, ma,rried Thomas Macon; Elizabeth, born 
February 9, 1768, died May 17, 1775; Reuben, born September 9, 1771, 
died June — , 1775; Frances Taylor, born October 4, 1774, married 
Robert Rose, died October — , 1823. "William and Mary Quarterly, " 
IX, 39. Family Bible record of Major Isaac Hite and of the Willis 
family of Orange. 

19 



20 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

with Thomas Chew, patented 4,675 acres of land in that 
part of Spottsylvania County which became in 1732 the 
county of Orange. Ambrose Madison dying in 1732, 
his eldest son James, the father of the subject of this 
book, inherited the interest in the land, and by pur- 
chases at different times acquired the whole of it.* This 
was the estate which came subsequently to be known 
as Montpelier, and upon which James Madison, the son, 
spent his whole life. As it happened, however, he was 
not born there. 

He was the eldest child of a 3^oung husband and wife 
who had ten children in all, seven of whom lived to 
maturity, four being sons and three daughters. His 
father, James Madison, married Eleanor Rose Conway, Sep- 
tember 15, 1749, at Port Conway on the Rappahannock 
River in King George County. She was seventeen years 
old, and he twenty-seven. Her father, Francis Conway, 
was the grandson of Edwin Conway of Worcester County, 
England, who came to Virginia about 1640; her mother 
was Rebecca Catlett, also of English descent. f Imme- 
diately after the wedding the young couple went to 
Orange, and to the wooden house which the bridegroom's 
father had built a few years before. It stood on a gentle 
slope about half a mile west of the spot where the Mont- 
pelier house now standing was erected. 

About sixteen months after their marriage they jour- 
neyed back to Port Conway in order that the young wife 
might be with her mother during her first confinement. 
The route lay first to Fredericksburg by a road follow- 
ing nearly but not precisely the track of the present road, 
and at Fredericksburg they were ferried over the river 
and followed the highway which was then the main 
stem of travel between North and South. It was a 
journey of between fifty and sixty miles and probably 
took nearly three days, as progress on wheels was neces- 
sarily slow, the roads being bad. About a mile from 

* MS. records of Orange County, Virginia, 
t Hay den's "Virginia Genealogies," 255. 



f 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 21 

the river and a short distance back from the road stood 
Francis Conway's house, and here at midnight, March 16, 
1 75 1, Nelly Conway Madison gave birth to a son.* The 
house, was many years ago razed to the ground, and 
nothing now remains to mark the spot but a few bricks 
of the cellar, t Twenty-one days after his birth the 
baby was christened and given his father's name. The 
parish clergyman. Rev. William Davis, officiated, and 
the sponsors v/ere John Moore, Jonathan Gibson, Mrs. 
Rebecca Moore, and the Misses Judith and Elizabeth 
Catlett, all neighbours and relatives of the young mother. 
Soon after the christening the journey was made back 
to Orange, so the child had no associations with the 
spot where he was bom. Between 1756 and 1760, after 
the family circle had been enlarged by the birth of two 
more children and invaded by its first sorrow in the 
death of one of them, a new brick house was completed, 
probably the first one built of that material in that part 
of the world. It was a plain rectangular structure, with 
a hall running through the centre and two rooms on 
either side. It still stands, but its identity has been so 
moulded into the grander house which was subsequently 
added to it, that its orig nal proportions are hardly 
discoverable. Thus, for upwards of seventy-five years, 
Madison lived under the same roof, and on the same estate 
all his life. His grandfather had settled upon it, driv- 
ing the Indians before him, and it went from father to 
son, remaining with the three generations for one hun- 
dred and thirteen years. 

The influence of the father and mother continued with 

their first-born during his maturity. The father died 

in 180^1*' when he was seventy-seven years old, after his 

'son had become Secretary of State; and the son had run 

his course and retired to private life when his mother 

*Hayden's "Virginia Genealogies," 261. 

t R. H. L. Chichester, judge of King George and Stafford counties, 
through the clerk of the court of King George County, E. L. Hunter, 
Esq., furnishes this information. It has been confirmed by the per- 
sonal knowledge of Professor H. C. Cameron of Princeton University. 



2 2 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

died in 1829, in the ninety-eighth year of her age, and 
only seven years before his own death. During all 
these years they shared the same house. Eleanor, or 
as she was commonly called, Nelly Madison was not a 
beautiful woman, but her face was strongly marked, 
and her son in the latter years of his life bore a striking 
resemblance to her in her old age. Although not robust 
in youth, her health became good in the latter half of 
her life. She lived a simple, unostentatious life, sur- 
rounded by her family and relations, by whom she was 
held in great reverence. She was noted for her piety 
and was a communicant in the Episcopal Church from 
the time of her girlhood, although she was not confirmed 
till she was eighty years old ; this, as it happened, being 
her first opportunity. The Episcopal Church in Vir- 
ginia almost disappeared from the face of the earth for 
a quarter of a century succeeding the Revolution, and 
St. Thomas' parish had no regular rector. Rev. James 
Waddel, the famous blind Presbyterian minister, whose 
eloquence has been enshrined in one of William Wirt's 
most picturesque passages, preached regularly at Belle 
Grove church, near Gordonsville, about eight miles from 
Montpelier, and at intervals in the Episcopal church 
nearer Montpelier, and Mrs. Madison took great delight 
in his preaching and attended his ministry whenever 
possible. She was thus not a strict sectarian, but for 
many years there were hardly any strict Episcopalians 
in her part of the State. 

Madison's father was a careful planter and patriotic 
citizen, accepting his public duties without aspiring to 
fame in them. He acted on the revolutionary commit- 
tee of his county, served as vestryman of his parish and 
was county lieutenant. As he was probably the largest 
landholder in Orange, and as landholding was the chief 
test of consideration, his influence was as great as that 
of any other man of his section. He was not a man of 
high education, but, it would appear, possessed as much 
learning as the average planter of his time, and in his 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 23 

letters which have been preserved he expresses himself 
plainly and directly. When his son was born Orange 
was a frontier county in Virginia, and did not have a 
society as important or wealthy as that of the lower 
and river counties. In the State as a whole, therefore, 
the Madisons and their numerous connections did not 
occupy a position as high as that of many other families, 
especially those few that had relatives of consequence 
in England; but from a local point of view their place 
was at the top, and as the region became more settled 
their importance increased. 

Primogeniture in Virginia was not abolished by law 
until 1785, and the principle of family importance, and 
its maintenance through the recognition of the superior 
position of the eldest son, did not die with it. The young 
James Madison was, accordingly, treated by his parents 
as the chief heir to the estate, and immediately after his 
return from college became the head of the family, next 
to his father, sharing the responsibilities and consider- 
ation. He was well fitted for the position, for his nature 
was already mature and stable, and he sowed no wild 
oats. 



CHAPTER IV 

VIRGINIA FINANCES 

The taste of public life which Madison had in 1776 
was pleasant to him and, the Assembly having adjourned, 
he offered himself for re-election to the House of Dele- 
gates. He was young and he had not yet secured a firm 
hold upon his constituents. He attempted, neverthe- 
less, to secure their votes, while at the same time he com- 
batted one of the election customs to which they were 
firmly attached. This was the custom of treating the 
voters liberally with rum and punch, a form of corrup- 
tion which was always practised in colonial elections, 
and which George Washington himself had observed 
when he was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1758. 
But Madison conceived that a new and better order of 
things had now begun, and he determined to endeavor 
to put a stop to a practice demoralizing to candidates 
and voters alike, and to secure his election without 
making his supporters tipsy. His motives were com- 
mendable, but his opponents represented them as spring- 
ing from a parsimonious spirit and an indifference to 
the wishes of the people. He was a rich man's son, and 
it v/as proclaimed that he Vv^as not the poor man's friend, 
and a successful appeal was made to class prejudice. 
His opponent, Charles Porter, treated lavishly and was 
elected. A number of Madison's supporters presented 
a petition to the House of Delegates, May 16, 1777, say- 
ing Porter had used bribery and corruption and pray- 
ing that his seat be declared vacant. It went to a com- 
mittee, but was allowed to drop.* 

The victim of Porter's punch had no occasion to press 

* Journal of the House of Delegates. 

24 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 25 

the petition, for he soon received official recognition from 
the General Assembly itself, being elected, November 13, 
1777, a member of the Privy Council or Council of State, 
and taking his seat January 14, 1778. This body consisted 
of eight members, chosen by the Assembly from its own 
members or from the people at large, and was intended 
by the Constitution to be an advisory cabinet for the 
Governor. It elected its own president, who acted as 
Lieutenant-Governor of the State when the Lieutenant- 
Governor was away, and two members were removed 
by joint ballot of the Assembly every two years, and were 
ineligible for re-election for the next three years, their 
places being filled by election by the Assembly. It was con- 
sidered a body of exceptional dignity, and when Madison 
entered it was recruited from the most influential class. 
His colleagues were John Page, afterwards Governor, 
John Blair, who went to the Federal Convention with 
Madison in 1787, David Jameson, of the Revolutionary 
army, Thomas Walker, the pioneer and soldier who was 
Jefferson's guardian and Washington's friend; B. Dand- 
ridge, Nathaniel Harrison and Dudley Digges, — all mem- 
bers of important families. Madison was'much the young- 
est member, and h''s selection was proof that he had made 
an unusual impression during his service in the Conven- 
tion and the Assembly. The Council, however, was not 
a field in which an ambitious man had much opportu- 
nity to extend his reputation. In writing to Jefferson 
in 1784 (March 16) Madison described it as a grave for 
talent and "objectionable in point of expense."* Of 
the eight members seldom more than five or s'x were 
present at the meetings. Madison was more assiduous 
in attendance than any other member, but he had one 
prolonged absence from July 13 to November 7, 1778. 
The chief business of the body was the issuing of war- 
rants for war purposes, arranging the drafts on the 
counties, authorizing appointments, and raising troops 
and supplies. Jefferson is authority for the statement 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt) II, 40. 



26 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

that in the meetings of this small body Madison's diffi- 
dence disappeared and he became accustomed to speak- 
ing. He acted as interpreter when foreigners communi- 
cated with the Council until Belini became secretary 
and interpreter in June, 1778,* and as he prepared most 
of the papers for the Governor's signature, he was termed 
the " Secretary of State. " 

The most important question with which the Council 
had to deal, and the one which furnished the most 
valuable training to Madison was that of raising money, 
and the Virginia system may be taken as an illustration 
of the methods which prevailed in the other States to 
a greater or less extent. The problem presented was, 
how to recruit and equip armies and pay the expenses 
of government, including a proportion of those of the 
continental establishment, and yet increase taxes as 
little as possible, for, naturally, the people were dis- 
tressed in their circumstances and would not bear heavy 
levies. When such a condition of affairs exists. States 
issue paper money, or borrow, or do both, and try to 
meet the crisis of the present without undue solicitude 
for the future. 

In 1776 the Virginia Assembly provided for the office 
of Treasurer, to receive all taxes, and laid special taxes 
on carriages, land, licenses, and legal documents, beside 
providing for a poll tax.f The payment was to begin 
in 1784, and in the meantime, "to suit the distressed 
circumstances of the inhabitants" and as " the only ex- 
pedient" the Treasurer was ordered to borrow upon the 
credit of the taxes at an interest of four per cent, per 
annum as much money as he could procure, and if he 
could not borrow to issue treasury notes up to ;;^5oo,ooo. 
The notes were to be legal tender for all debts and taxes, 
and heavy penalties were laid upon those who sho.uld 
refuse them, or exchange gold and silver at a premium. 

* Journal of the Governor's Council MSS., Virginia State Library, 
t Hening's Statutes at Large for the dates given in the text contain 
the laws cited. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 27 

All the notes were to be redeemable January i, 1790, 
and if the taxes should prove to be insufficient for this 
purpose the "whole estates, real and personal, of the 
inhabitants" of the colony were pledged to make good 
the deficiency. This marked the beginning of the Vir- 
ginia emissions of paper money after the Revolution 
began. In May, 1777, the Treasurer was ordered to call 
in the outstanding paper, and issue in its place $1,000,000 
in notes. Of course, the law forbidding the holding of 
coin at a premium had no effect, but it was repeated this 
year with heavier penalties, against "the pernicious 
artifices of the enemies of American liberty to impair 
the credit of the said bills, by raising the nominal value 
of gold and silver." 

At the October session, 1777, the Assembly recognized 
the depreciation of the paper money and the necessity 
for a more promising provision for its redemption, and 
passed an elaborate and comprehensive tax measure. 
The proceeds of the tax were to be applied first to Vir- 
ginia's quota of the principal and interest of money 
borrowed on treasury notes by the Continental Con- 
gress, and then to the redemption of the State emissions. 
To tide over the period till the taxes should begin to be 
paid, $1,700,000 of treasury notes could be issued. Prof- 
iting by the example set by the Legislature, individuals 
began to issue bills of credit or notes payable to the 
bearer, and a law was passed to prohibit the practice. 
In May, 1778, a new emission of $600,000, was author- 
ized, and in October, $1,700,000 more. These acts 
necessarily caused unevenness in the assessment of taxes, 
some assessors valuing the lands at their selHng price in 
gold or silver, others at what they would bring in paper. 
At the May, 1779, session they were ordered to assess 
on the paper valuation. At the same session ;^i 00,000 
more of paper money was authorized and the people 
were encouraged to pay taxes in wheat, corn, rye, barley, 
oats, hemp or tobacco. The act forbidding any person 
from asking more in coin than in paper for any article 



28 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

was repealed, as causing "many inconveniences and 
much injustice." The fact was frankly recognized that 
matters could not go on much longer at the present rate 
of paper emissions — that there must be found some 
basis for them. An additional tax was accordingly laid 
in October, 1779, and at the same session an act to pro- 
vide a fund upon which to borrow money was established. 
It laid a tax of thirty pounds of inspected tobacco in 
transfer notes upon every tithable person, except free 
whites between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one years. 
Five-eighths of the proceeds were to constitute a fund 
upon which the Treasurer was empowered to borrow 
not to exceed ;^5,ooo,ooo current money, paying annual 
interest. One hundred pounds of inspected tobacco 
was to be taken as equal to thirty pounds cuiTcnt money, 
and every lender Vv^as to receive indented certificates. 
The payment of the tax was, however, suspended until 
December i, 1780. Another act increased the general 
taxation one-half per cent. So far as the general con- 
dition in both Nation and State was concerned the As- 
sembly understood it and stated it frankly in the act 
passed at the spring session, 1780: "Whereas, the 
just and necessary war into which the United States 
have been driven, obliged Congress to emit bills of credit 
before the several States were sufficiently organized to 
enforce the collection of taxes or funds could be estab- 
lished to support the credit of such bills, by which means 
the bills so emitted soon exceeded the sum necessary 
for a circulating medium, and consequently depreciated 
so as to create an alarming redundance of money, whereby 
it is become necessary to reduce the quantity of such 
bills; to call in and destroy the excessive mass of money 
now in circulation, and to utter other bills, on funds 
which shall ensure the redemption thereof. And, whereas 
the certain consequences of not calling in and redeem- 
ing the money now in circulation in the depreciated 
value at which it hath been generally received would 
be to encrease the national debt thirty-nine times greater 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 29 

than it really is, and consequently subject the good 
people of this commonwealth to many years of grievous 
and unnecessary taxation" — therefore, a fund was 
created and new taxes laid to call in the State's quota 
of the $200,000,000 of continental money issued by 
Congress and to destroy the State money in circulation. 
On the faith of the United States and on the funds of 
the State new bills to the amount of $1,666,666 2-3 
bearing interest at five per cent, per annum were au- 
thorized, to be redeemable in coin by December 31, 1786. 
The rate of exchange of the old bills for the new was fixed 
at forty to one. The efforts to make money out of paper 
were not the result of any general delusion or desire to 
pay for something with nothing, but were simply the 
result of necessity. Another way was tried but without 
success. 
;> There lived at CoUe, a plantation a short distance j 
from Monticello, a Tuscan scientist named Philip Mazzei, 
who, with a small colony of other Italians, came to Vir- 
ginia to cultivate grapes for wine.* He became an 
ardent American and threw himself heart and soul into 
the Revolution, and being prolific of schemes he hit upon 
one for borrowing money in Italy. He described his 
scheme and the situation in the State in a confidential 
letter to Richard Henry Lee, one of his friends, dated 
March 25,1777.! " The redundance of the paper money ; 
the unavoidable necessity of new emissions; the success- 
ful maUce of so many villains in depreciating it every- 
where; the repugnance of the people to the service, art- 
fully increased, and even suggested by many wander- 
ing ministers of the Gospel; the daily growing dis- 
content on account of the great scarcity and exorbitant 
prices of several necessaries of life, especially salt, which 
is not now to be had on any terms; the reigning mer- 
cantile spirit, by which it appears, that the making great 
fortunes at the expense of pubHc calamities, is now the 

* Randall's "Jefferson," I, 235. 
tLee MSS., University of Virginia. 



30 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 



o 



only cherished object, and the possibiUty, that the 
British ministry, either by the strange acquisition of 
some degree of prudence, or by fear or compulsion, may 
be induced to offer such terms, as <might disunite us, give 
me the greatest apprehension. I can't help thinking, 
that I could probably contribute not a little to remedy 
these evils, or lessen their effects, was I sent to Europe 
in company v^ith some clevar fellow, such as Mr. Maddi- 
son, Mr. Man Page, Dr. McClurg, Dr. Jones, &c. " 

No "clevar fellow" was sent with him, but soon after 
the date of this letter he was commissioned by the Gov- 
ernor and Council to proceed to the Italian States and 
solicit a loan for Virginia, The Grand Duke of Tuscany 
or the Genoese would, he thought, lend money, if it was 
expended for supplies, etc., in the country of the lender, 
his people thereby deriving the benefit of it.* This plan 
appears to have commended itself to Madison and the 
Governor, and it was arranged that Madison should be 
Mazzei's chief correspondent. On June 13, 1779, when 
on the eve of embarking, Mazzei wrote enclosing the 
cypher they were to use, and saying he had put his papers 
in a bag with a four-pound ball to throw overboard in 
case of capture by the enemy. He set sail and was 
captured, and the shot carried his commission and in- 
structions to the bottom of the sea. After a season of 
imprisonment he was released, and went to France to 
consult Franklin on the subject of his mission, but 
Franklin disapproved strongly of the efforts of individual 
States to borrow money, because his own exertions for na- 
tional loans were thereby interfered with. So he told Maz- 
zei he had no authority to borrow and Mazzei wrote back 
to Virginia for a new commission, but it was never sent. 
He went to Florence where he was soon reduced to ex- 
tremity, was without money, and chafed at his neglect. 
He ceased asking for pay and begged only for money 
to come back to America. He did not like Italy, and 
said he wanted to spend his evenings once more with 

* Department of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 31 

Blair, and Lomax, and President Madison, of William 
and Mary, and their families, and declared there was 
more virtue among the ladies of Virginia than among a 
whole cargo of European women.* By some means 
other than official he succeeded in getting back to his 
beloved Virginia, and became a man with a grievance, 
and as Franklin had thrown cold water on his mission 
he pursued him malignantly. The State had, in truth, 
treated him but shabbily, but affairs at home were too 
pressing to admit of much consideration for a man who 
wanted money in Italy. In fact there was none to send 
him, and Lem.aire and Schweighausen, two other agents, 
who actually bought military supplies in Europe under 
Arthur Lee's direction, were no better off for payment 
than was Mazzei.f 



* Department of State MSS. 

t Arthiir Lee to Richard Henry Lee. Lee MSS. University of Virginia. 



CHAPTER V 

FEDERAL FINANCES 

After having served two years as a Councillor of 
State, Madison was elected a delegate to the Continental 
Congress by the General Assembly and took his seat 
March 20, 1780. He described the situation as it then 
existed in a letter to his father: "Our army threatened 
with an immediate alternative of disbanding or living 
at free quarters; the public treasury empty; public 
credit exhausted, nay the private credit of purchasing 
agents employed, I am told, as far as it can bear; Con- 
gress complaining of the extortion of the people; the 
people of the improvidence of Congress; and the army 
of both; our affairs requiring the most mature and sys- 
tematic measures, and the urgency of the occasion ad- 
mitting only of temporar}^ expedients, and these ex-, 
pedients generating new difficulties; Congress recom- 
mending plans to the several States for execution, and 
the States separately rejudging the expediency of such 
plans, whereby the same distrust of concurrent exertions 
that has dampened the ardour of patriotic individuals 
must produce the same effect among the States them- 
selves ; an old system of finance discarded as incompetent to 
our necessities, an untried and precarious one substituted 
and a total stagnation in prospect between the end of 
the former and the operation of the latter. These are 
the outlines of the picture of our public situation. " 

Robert Morris said the authority of Congress was 
almost "reduced to a metaphysical idea."* The pay- 
ments of the several States into the Federal treasury 

* Sumner's "The Financier and the Finances of the American Revo- 
lution," I, 286. 

32 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 33 

under the requisitions of Congress were hardly tangible. 
The army was kept from starving and total prostra- 
tion of the Government was prevented by drafts upon 
the States for their unpaid requisitions, and the States 
met the drafts by fresh outputs of paper money and not 
by increased taxation. The State currency was more 
worthless than the continental currency. At the close of 
the year 1781 Ambler, the Treasurer of Virginia, said the 
paper of the State could be reduced to specie at the rate 
of 1,000 for I. The people shuddered at paper and were 
wild to get specie, but the few who got it hoarded it and 
thus furnished fresh excuse for more paper emissions.* 
August 13, 1 781, Madison said the exchange between 
the old continental currency and specie was about 135 to 
I . Yet there was a good deal of specie in the coimtry in 
1780 and 1 78 1. It came from the French army, from 
Havana, in exchange for supplies for the Spanish forces 
there, and from illicit trade carried on, in spite of legal 
prohibition, between Americans and the British. Hardly 
any of this specie was in circulation in Virginia, however, 
where imported articles cost 100 per cent, more than 
they did in Philadelphia.! When the French troops 
departed for Virginia in October, 1781, there was joyful 
anticipation of an influx of specie in that State, but their 
expenditures really brought little relief, for commerce 
had almost stopped, and the hard money remained in 
the hands of a few fortunate people. Little specie ever 
got into the Federal treasury, for Morris wrote to Frank- 
lin, November 27, 1781, that since June, when he entered 
upon the duties of his office, he had not received over 
$100,000 in coin. May 11, 1782,$ Ambler wrote Madi- 
son that since he had been Treasurer of Virginia there 
had not been ten pounds of specie in the State treasury. § 
In a report made by Morris to Congress, August 28, 1781, 

*!Edmund Randolph to R. H. Lee, Richmond, September 24, 1785. 
Lee MSS. University of Virginia. 

t Sumner's "Financier of the American Revolution," I, qn. 

tid., I, 97- 

§ Department of State MSS. 



34 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

he gave the amQunt of requisitions upon the States, 
March i, 1780, as $5,000,000, worth only $401,450 in 
specie.* The lamentable condition of affairs was not 
due to inability of the people to support the Government, 
for the testimony is ample that they could have done so. 
As Wilson explained in a speech in Congress, January 2 7 , 
1783,1 they were unwilling to submit to taxation, which 
they had regarded as odious under the old Government, 
and which they were now loath to accept when it was 
laid in a direct manner instead of indirectly, so that the 
payments would not be noticed. There was general 
complaint that taxes were too high, and Richard Henry 
Lee wrote Madison, November 20, 1784, that it was one 
cause of the large emigration then in progress from 
Virginia to the more Southern States. He suggested, 
as a remedy, that the State debt be funded and taxes 
lessened; but the collection of the taxes laid the year 
before had been postponed and there was nothing with 
which to meet the obligations of the State. J John 
Francis Mercer, a colleague of Madison's in Congress 
and generally opposed to him on financial questions, 
was disposed to abandon what seemed to be a hopeless 
struggle against bankruptcy. In November, 1784, he 
had a conversation with Robert Morris, who told him 
that no money came into the treasury, that several of 
the States had taken no notice whatsoever of the Con- 
gressional requisitions, and others declared they could 
not understand them. Morris said Virginia was about 
the only State that kept the wheels of Government 
moving, so Mercer could see no object in continuing to 
pay, and thereby merely postponing the inevitable 
stoppage of the wheels. § 

When IMadison entered Congress the continental bills 
of credit amounted to $200,000,000. Forty dollars 



* Sumner's "Financier of the American Revolution," I, 299. 
t " Writings of Madison " (Hunt) I, 328. 
i Department of State MSS. 
§Icl. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 35 

paper to one dollar specie was the ratio of exchange 
fixed by resolution of March 18, 1780, but it fluctuated 
and was really much higher. This resolution also sub- 
stituted for these issues not more than $10,000,000 of 
new bills payable in specie six years after their date, 
in the meantime drawing interest at five per cent, per 
annum. This was virtually an act of bankruptcy, and 
before it went into effect the old continental bills de- 
preciated to 400 to I . It was at this stage that Congress 
urged the States to pay their quotas in produce instead 
of more worthless paper. Some produce was thus 
furnished, but paper was piled on paper and the finances 
of the country were in an appalling condition. 

The hopes of Congress centred in Europe where 
Franklin, Adams and Jay were soliciting loans, but 
when Franklin informed J\Iorris that France had granted 
an additional 6,000,000 livrcs it was found that the 
whole had been anticipated by bills of exchange, pur- 
chase of supplies for the aiTny, Beaumarchais ' debt of 
2,500,000 livres due in 1782, interest, &c. When the 
Secretary of War told Congress in May, 1782, that the 
Department of Finance was unable to furnish the means 
for supporting the army, Madison said Congress was 
shocked but not surprised. Such desperate straits had 
the country reached that Morris called upon Congress 
to appoint a committee to devise with him measures of 
temporary relief. Madison, Osgood and Rutledge w^ere 
appointed January 10, 1783, and after consultation 
decided to draw upon the applications for loans in 
Europe !* These drafts upon the bank of hope, as Jay 
called them, were absolutely necessary to prevent a 
complete wreck. Peace negotiations with Great Britain 
were in progress at the time and there was deep mortifi- 
cation at the confessed poverty of the Government of a 
country about to be independent. April 8, 1783, the 
grand committee composed of one member from each 
State, reported the foreign debt as $7,885,085, the 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 306, 307. 



36 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

domestic debt as $26,615,290, the total, $36,500,375.* 
As a means of ameliorating the conditions, Madison 
proposed to Congress to address a formal recommenda- 
tion to the States to discontinue their paper emissions, 
but the proposition met with a cool reception and he 
abandoned it. He believed Congress should have power 
to coerce recalcitrant States into contributing their 
quotas to the expenses of the general government, and 
followed Washington's opinion that Congress, "after 
hearing the interests and views of the several States 
fairly discussed and explained by their representatives 
must dictate and not merely recommend and leave it 
to the States to do afterwards as they pleased; which, 
as I have observed before, is in many cases to do nothing 
at all." This view came to be generally held in Con- 
gress, but there was a difference of opinion as to whether 
the necessary power existed under the Articles of Con- 
federation, and ]\Iadison favoured an amendment grant- 
ing jurisdiction over the trade and property of contu- 
macious States. The subject never went , beyond the 
stage of discussion, for its unpopularity among the ob- 
jects of it was foreseen. 

The Articles of Confederation provided that Federal 
taxes should be apportioned among the States accord- 
ing to the valuation of lands, but Madison, Hamilton 
and a majority of the members of Congress believed the 
rule to be an impracticable one and impossible of execu- 
tion without friction, expense and delay. During the 
war, at any rate, it was manifestly impossible to put 
it into effect, as the country was overrun by the enemy. 
Another plan was proposed which Madison advocated 
with all his might as a basis of relief. This was the 
levying by Congress of an import tax on foreign mer- 
chandise. A request to the States for the necessary 
power was made by Congress, February 3, 1781, and 
Virginia acquiesced in June; but later, hearing that all 
the other States had not taken similar action, she quali- 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt) I, 443- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 37 

fied her assent, by instructing the Governor not to make 
it operative until the other States should also agree. 
Massachusetts at first remonstrated against the propo- 
sition, Rhode Island absolutely rejected it, and Georgia 
failed to take any action. Madison, Fitzsimmons and 
Hamilton were appointed a committee to draw up a ,., 
reply to the refusal of Rhode Island. Hamilton wrote 
it and it met with Madison's full concurrence. It con- 
tradicted the contention of Rhode Island that an im- 
port duty would bear hardest on commercial States, 
and pointed out that every duty on imports is incor- 
porated in the price of the commodity, and ultimately 
paid by the consumer, with a profit on the duty itself, 
as a compensation to the merchant for the advance of 
his money. As the merchant was himself a consumer 
he too paid his share of the tax. A deputation was ap- 
pointed to proceed to Rhode Island, lay the reply before 
the officers of the State, plead the desperate urgency 
of the situation, and ask a reconsideration of the State's 
action by the Legislature. 

The envoys set out December 22, 1782, and had pro- 
ceeded half a day's journey when a rumour reached them 
that Virginia had wholly repealed the act of assent. If 
this were true, as it was, it would be a crushing calamity 
and would make an appeal to Rhode Island a waste of 
breath. The deputation, therefore, returned to Phila- 
delphia to leam the truth, and learning it, abandoned 
their journey. The Virginia Assembly ha^d several 
reasons for its action.* Personal enmity played a part, 
for the Lee family was hostile to Robert Morris and 
opposed the proposed tax because Morris desired it. 
The ill-feeling began in 1776, when Morris by defending 
Silas Deane aroused the enmity of Arthur Lee. There 
was also a jealous feeling that the State had already con- 
tributed more than the other States to the Federal ex- 
penses and should refuse further aids of which she would 
probably have to bear an unequal share. Another 

* " Writings of Madison" (Hunt), I, 295 n. 



38 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

reason was set forth in the preamble to the act of repeal : 
"Whereas the permitting any power other than the 
General Assembly of this Commonwealth, to levy duties 
or taxes upon the citizens of this State within the samic, 
is injurious to its sovereignty, may prove destructive 
of the rights and liberties of the people, and so far as 
Congress might exercise the same, is contravening the 
spirit of the Confederation in the eighth article thereof," 
etc. If this ground were adhered to there could be no 
Federal tax for general revenue. 

The functions of a member of the Continental Con- 
gress were diplomatic and executive. Elected by the 
Legislature of his State he was supposed to carry out its 
orders implicitly and to apply for insti-uctions, when he 
doubted what his orders were. The State Legislature 
was the seat of power, and in Virginia, as Edmund 
Pendleton said, it was given to "cutting out large,"* and 
had a due sense of its own importance. To disobey its 
orders, to advocate a measure which it specifically con- 
demned, was an act of insubordination hitherto un- 
heard of ; but ]\Iadison,without hesitation, and apparently 
without fear of the consequences, deliberately put the 
resolutions of the Virginia Assembly aside. These 
resolutions were formally laid before Congress by Bland, 
January 27, 1783, and on January 28, Madison intro- 
duced a new modelled resolution in favour of providing 
general funds. It was: "That it is the opinion of 
Congress that the establishment of permanent and ade- 
quate funds, to operate generally throughout the United 
States, is indispensably necessary for doing complete 
justice to the creditors of the United States, for restor- 
ing public credit, and for providing for the future exi- 
gencies of the war." fThe issue was between those who 
favoured increasing Federal power and those who feared 
the increase would subvert State power. Alexander 
Hamilton made a speech on the day Madison's resolu- 
tion was brought in, declaring all collectors of Federal 

* To R. H. Lee, May 17, 1777. Lee MSS. University of Virginia. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 39 

taxes should be both appointed and paid by Congress, 
because they would then be interested in supporting 
the power of the Federal Government. Bland and Lee 
and other State rights members smiled when they heard 
this, and observed among themselves that he had let out 
the secret of the purpose of the proposed measures for 
Federal funds. ]\Iadison himself afterwards said that 
Hamilton's remark was injurious to the cause it was 
intended to serve. In Madison's speech in favour of 
his resolution he said it was needless to go into proofs of 
the necessity of paying the debts, as the idea of erecting 
our independence upon the ruins of public faith and 
national honour was an abhorrent one. His resolution, 
therefore, must be agreed to, unless some one could 
show another plan that would accomplish the same 
purpose. It was admittedly impossible to pay any part 
of the principal of the debts; the question involved was 
how to pay the interest. Periodical requisitions on tha 
States had proved a failure. If the States themselves 
estabHshed separate funds they must be founded upon 
a final adjustment of accomits between the States and 
the United States, and the difficulties, complications, and 
delays would be interminable. If the funds were first 
in the hands of the several States they might be diverted 
from their proper use at any time upon any excuse. 
There would also be a perpetual jealousy between the 
States as to amounts levied and contributed. A general 
fund under the control of Congress obviated all of these 
difficulties. It was apparent that unless a general pro- 
vision were made Pennsylvania would pay her own troops 
as she w^as then threatening to do.* Her example would 
be followed by other States, and what then would be- 
come of the authority of Congress and the Union ? Grave 
dangers confronted the Government and it must not be 

* The Pennsylvania Legislature, in a memorial presented to Congress 
November 20, 1782, expressed a desire to pay the creditors of the Uni- 
ted States in the State from the revenues alloted by the State for Federal 
uses. Madison, Hamilton and Rutledge were appointed a committee 
to meet and dissuade the committee of the Legislature. 



40 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

forgotten that it was the clamours of the army for their 
pay and pensions that had brought about the present 
crisis. It would not be safe to drive an army to des- 
peration. It had been objected that the scheme was 
subversive of the sovereignty and liberty of the 
States [Virginia had said it], but Congress already had 
authority over the purse and a requisition for money 
was now a law to the States, although it was a law that 
was not enforced. The proposed scheme would simply 
make it an effective law. He admitted that the States 
showed no fondness for the scheme, but insisted it was 
gaining in popularity aU the time. As for Virginia's 
opposition he was always anxious to follow the behests 
of his constituents, but the present considerations pre- 
vailed over it. A member owed something to the col- 
lective interests of the whole people. He thought there 
were occasions when personal consequences should not 
deter a legislator from acting according to the clear 
dictates of conscience for the good of the whole; he 
thought Virginia would not have repealed the law if she 
had had fuU knowledge and would even yet change her 
action.* 

A reason why Madison wished to obtain a general fund 
for the disposal of Congress was that such a fund was 
necessary in order to pay the National debt, and to pay 
the debt was necessary to preserve the Union. If the 
Union broke up there were many people who would 
favour a return to EngHsh allegiance. He thought, too, 
that military uprisings were inevitable, unless there was 
a settled way of paying the troops. A general fund 
would prevent disputes among the States, which were 
now dangerously jealous of each other, the Eastern 
States thinking they wxre creditors of the Southern 
States. It the confederacy broke up the Eastern States 
would be strong at sea; the Southern States would be 
opulent and weak. Mutual reprisals would follow and 
the weaker side would call in foreign aid, and finally both 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 333- t^^ ■^''''?- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 41 

sides would be subservient to the wars and politics of 
Europe, In a speech on February 21, 1783, he said he 
would concur in every arrangement necessary for an 
honourable and just fulfilnient of public engagements, 
but in no measure unnecessarily increasing the power 
of Congress, and he had, therefore, no desire to per- 
petuate the public debt.* 

The attitude of the several States toward the project 
of providing general funds and strengthening the con- 
federacy was thus summed up by Madison : New Hamp- 
shire was in favour, because she wished to be free from 
taxation by the States through which her trade passed; 
Massachusetts because she was a creditor state and 
wished the public debt to be provided for. Rhode Island 
should have been in favour, because she was so weak 
that the Union was necessary to her protection, but she 
was loath to give up the opportunity of taxing her 
neighbours which her geographical position afforded her. 
Connecticut was interested in anything to enable her 
to escape taxation of her commerce by New York and 
Rhode Island. In New York many influential citizens 
were concerned for provision for the public debt. New 
Jersey needed protection against taxation by Pennsyl- 
vania and New York. In Pennsylvania were many 
citizens who had subscribed for the domestic debt of the 
United States. Dele ware was too weak to stand without 
the confederacy to help her. Maryland occupied a 
unique position. She had never been the seat of war, 
and not many of her citizens were creditors of the United 
States. She had, however, a general wish for National 
tranquillity. To Virginia the confederacy was necessary 
to protect her large commerce against the maritime 
supremacy of the Eastern States; but she disliked giv- 
ing up the privilege of taxing North Carolina. North 
Carolina, like Virginia, needed protection against the 
maritime power of New England, and also against the 
taxing power of Virginia and South Carolina. South 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 382. 



42 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

Carolina was weak and exposed. She suffered severely 
during the war and was a creditor of the United States. 
Georgia was weak and rich, and as a frontier State re- 
quired protection.* 

Following the resolution of Madison the committee 
on revenue made a report on March 7, reviving the 
recommendation of 1781, that the States yield to Con- 
gress power to levy, for the use of the United States, a 
duty of five per cent, ad valorem at the port of importa- 
tion upon all foreign merchandise with a few exceptions ; 
and asking for a like duty on all prizes condemned in 
the court of admiralty, and a tax on salt, wines, liquors, 
sugars and teas imported. The taxes were to run for 
twenty-five years, and the collectors were to be ap- 
pointed by the States, and to serve under the orders of 
Congress. None of the taxes were to take effect until 
all had been agreed to by every State. March 19, Mor- 
ris reported to Congress that the credit of the United 
States was at an end, and that no further aids were to 
be expected from Europe.! 

Among the most earnest supporters of Madison's reso- 
lution was Alexander Hamilton, but on the report of the 
revenue committee he and Madison parted company, 
Hamilton insisting upon direct taxes as the proper way 
to secure revenue and the direct appointment of collec- 
tors of taxes by Congress. His scheme would have been 
the best, but the States never would have adopted it, if 
it had passed through Congress. The plan of the reve- 
nue committee, with some amendments not affecting its 
general provisions was adopted by Congress, April 18, 
1783, all the States voting for it but New York, which 
was divided by Hamilton's vote in the negative, and 
Rhode Island, which opposed it. J 

It was computed that the amount of the tax would not 
exceed $6,000,000 a year, which was not sufficient, and 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 389, n. 
t Id., 397, 410. 
J Id., I, 453- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 43 

left a million and a half of interest on the debt to be 
provided for. It was decided to apportion this sum 
among the States and leave them to collect it by such 
taxes as they chose to impose. The apportionment was 
to be based upon population, counting all the whites and 
free persons and three-fifths of the slaves. This com- 
putation emanated from Madison. The Southern mem- 
bers contended that as a slave was not nearly as pro- 
ductive as a white man, it was obviously unjiist to com- 
pute him as the same in any scheme of taxation, and 
after many tentative ratios were suggested, Madison's 
was accepted as the least objectionable. 

April 26, 1783, Madison submitted the address to the 
States urging the acceptance of the import duty and it 
passed imanimously. It set forth the necessities of the 
occasion and declared taxes on consumption were least 
burdensome, because they were least felt, and that taxes 
on consumption of articles of foreign commerce were 
"most compatible with the genius of free States." The 
whole problem was stated lucidly and simply and an 
earnest plea was made for paying the debt (i) to our 
ally, (2) to those foreigners who had stood our friend 
and trusted us, (3) to the soldiers who had fought for us, 
and (4) to our own citizens who had loaned us their 
funds.* 

Two months later Madison's Congressional service 
terminated for the time being and he went home. The 
impost was finally agreed to by each of the States, at 
scattering dates, but it was not until the eve of the Con- 
stitutional Convention at Philadelphia that all had 
taken favourable action. 

* " Writings of Madison," II, 454, n. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE SURRENDER OF THE " BACK LANDS" 

During nearly the whole period of the Revolution, 
until March i, 1781, the American Union existed by 
common consent and the general Government performed 
its functions without a charter. The Articles of Con- 
federation were agreed to by Congress, November 15, 
1777, but they were not operative until ratified by all. 
the States, and after the other States had acted favour- 
ably Maryland continued to withhold her consent and 
blocked the way. Her objections were based upon 
the ground that the proposed articles confirmed the 
existing sovereignty of the States ; and before this could 
properly be done those States which had, or claimed to 
have, unoccupied Western territory, or "back lands," 
as they were commonly called, should yield them up to 
the sovereignty of the United States. Maryland in- 
dividually had no such lands, and she was jealous of 
the overweening power of her richest and largest neigh- 
bour, Virginia.* On September 6, 1780, Congress ap- 
pealed to the States to make liberal surrender of the 
lands, and to Maryland to authorize her delegates in 
Congress to ratify the Articles of Confederation. The 
response of Virginia was a liberal one. In making it 
she was actuated by a desire to consummate the Union 
as a legal fact, and to secure a definite Western boundary 
of general recognition chosen by herself. There were 
also vexatious questions and obligations connected with 
holding the enormous territory she claimed which she 
could profitably shift upon the general Government, 
thereby relieving herself of the burden of administration. 

* Rives, I, 210, et seq. 

44 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 45 

The plan of cession originated with George Mason, 
and as actually adopted by the Assembly of the State 
was substantially the same as that outHned by him in 
a letter to Joseph Jones, July 27, 1780. It proposed to 
surrender the territory west of Pennsylvania and north 
of 39° 45' 18" parallel, between eighty and ninety miles 
long, and in breadth from east to west the whole distance 
between the western boundary of Pennsylvania and the 
Mississippi, between three and four hundred miles; also 
the country between the Ohio and Mississippi, lying 
north of parallel 39° 45' 18". The whole area was about 
50,000,000 acres in extent, and comprised all of Vir- 
ginia's holdings, possessed and claimed, north-west of 
the Ohio, and extending thence to the Mississippi and 
the Great Lakes. From it the States of Ohio, Indiana 
and Wisconsin were afterwards formed. Title to the 
lands was asserted by the Virginia Assembly in the 
spring of 1779, in an act declaring that all deeds or ces- 
sions previously made by the Indians to the crown 
should vest in the State, and all deeds made by the 
Indians for the separate use of any individuals should 
be considered void.* The State also claimed title by 
conquest. 

Early in 1777 George Rogers Clark's scheme of con- 
quering the Illinois country was approved by the Gov- 
ernor and Council of Virginia, and he was authorized 
by the Assembly to raise troops, and promised a liberal 
quantity of land for himself and his soldiers if he suc- 
ceeded in his proposed undertaking. About one hun- 
dred and eighty men went with him, and after great 
hardship and heroic daring, he reduced a large section 
of the country and the important posts of Kaskaskia 
and Vincennes. 

The act of the Virginia Assembly (January 2, 1781), 
offering the back lands to Congress, accordingly exacted, 
as a condition of the gift, that Clark and his men should 
have a quantity of land laid aside for their use. It also 

* Rowland's " Life of George Mason, " I, 360, et seq. 



46 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

stipulated that the State should be reimbursed for the 
expense incurred in conquering and defending the coun- 
try; that the friendly inhabitants should be protected 
in their rights and property ; that the promises of bounty 
land for Virginia troops in the Continental army should 
be met; that the territory should in due season be laid 
off in "Republican States"; that the unappropriated 
lands should constitute "a common fund for the use and 
benefit" of all the States, and consequently that all 
deeds from Indians to private persons or companies 
should be disregarded. Congress was also to guarantee 
to Virginia all her remaining territory after the cession.* 

There were three classes in Congress who opposed these 
conditions: — first, those who wished to force a larger 
cession and thereby restrict the boundaries of the State, 
thus crippling its preponderating influence ; second, those 
who thought all territory formerly known as crown lands 
now belonged of right to all the States equally and not 
to any one within whose boundaries it happened to be; 
third, those who had an interest, pecuniary or otherwise, 
in the land companies. 

These companies were the Indiana, Vandalia and 
Illinois. In contravention of Virginia law they had 
obtained from the Indians for mere trifles titles to more 
than 40,000,000 acres of land within the chartered limits 
of Virginia. When the question of the cession came 
before Congress they threw their influence might and 
main against its acceptance, and it was rumoured and 
generally believed at the time that some of their stock 
was held by members of Congress. 

Two States besides Virginia also offered lands, Con- 
necticut and New York, the former giving up all claim 
to the soil west of New York and as far as the Mississippi, 
but reserving political jurisdiction; the latter giving all 
lands, without reservation, west of a certain boundary 
"drawn on the occasion. "f Both cessions covered 

* Hcning's Statutes at Large, X, 564. 
t " Wri tings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 172. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 47 

some of the lands claimed by Virginia. New York's 
title rested upon treaties with the Six Nations tribe of 
Indians, surrendering all the territory claimed by that 
tribe and tributary tribes, making a domain of incal- 
culable extent. 

In the autumn of 1781 all the acts of cession and the 
memorials which the land companies submitted in sup- 
port of their claims were referred by Congress to a special 
committee for a report. By combining their forces 
the interests opposed to Virginia were in the ascendency, 
and the committee appointed reflected the views of the 
majority, being made up of members from New Hamp- 
shire, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania, all 
but Pennsylvania small States which hoped to ac- 
complish a restriction of Virginia's western boundary. 
The committee called at once for proof of title to the 
lands, but this demand the Virginia delegates resented, 
holding that the State had already declared itself on 
this point, and that the resolution of Congress calling 
for the surrender of the lands professed to bury such 
discussions.* They also felt the uselessness of arguing 
the case before prejudiced men. An endeavour to ob- 
tain action from Congress prohibiting the committee 
from entering into the question of titles met with no 
success, but the agents of the land companies appeared 
and made their arguments. November 3, 1781, the 
committee reported in favour of rejecting the offers of 
both Virginia and Connecticut, and declared that "all 
the lands ceded, or pretended to be ceded," by Virginia 
were a part of the original territory of the Six Nations 
and tributary tribes and were now under the government 
of New York. Accordingly, they recommended the ac- 
ceptance of that State's offer. As it embraced the lands 
southeast of the Ohio, the western boundary of Virginia 
would thus be the Alleghany mountains. The report also 
favoured the absolute confirmation of the Indiana Com- 
pany's claims, and treated those of the Vandalia and Illinois 

*" Writings of Madison" (Hunt), I, i6o, i6i. 



48 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

Companies as having an equitable basis. Nothing could 
have been more obnoxious to the Virginia delegates than 
this report ; yet to permit its consideration by Congress 
would at this time have resulted in its adoption. Resort 
was accordingly had to dilatory tactics, and by adroit par- 
liamentary manoeuvring Madison succeeded in preventing 
its consideration. As it was plain to him that no favour- 
able action was to be expected from Congress as matters 
stood, he turned his attention to the State government, 
and wrote to Jefferson, urging him to carefully trace 
Virginia's title and be prepared to defend it.* In May, 
1782, he suggested that the Legislature reconsider its 
act of cession and either repeal it or set a limit of time 
for its acceptance. By thus presenting a bold front 
he had no doubt Congress would change its attitude. 

In the meantime one of the chief objects of the Act 
of Surrender had been accompHshed, for Alary land had 
given her adhesion to the Articles of Confederation, and 
on Thursday, March ist, 1781, they were annoimced to 
the world. 

Aladison's suggestion that Virginia reconsider or 
modify her act of cession, so as to force the hand of 
Congress, was not pursued, and in the summer of 1782, 
before further action was taken by the State, the Grand 
Committee of Congress, composed of a member from 
each State, called the attention of Congress to the fact 
that if the back lands were at its disposal, they would 
furnish an excellent means of raising some of the revenue 
so pressingly needed. The debates showed, however, 
that at this time Congress was hopelessly spUt on the 
subject, enough States favouring one plan or another 
to make it impossible to find a majority for any.f There 
was danger, therefore, of such delay that the individual 
States, having lands, or claiming to have them, would 
open land offices and sell land patents without reference 
to Federal action, and an already complicated situation 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 170, ri seq. 
tid., I, 225. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 49 

would thus become still more confused, while the general 
Government would be deprived of any benefit from the 
lands. In this aspect of affairs Madison became con- 
vinced that the occasion was one for a compromise, or 
both the Federal Government and Virginia would suffer. 
It was desirable for the additional reason that the 
lands in question were being settled, and the time was 
not distant when the inhabitants would be making 
demands of their own. Virginia would then lose the 
territory and the United States would not gain it. "A 
separate government," wrote Madison, "cannot be far 
distant, and will be an insuperable barrier to subse- 
quent profits. If, therefore, the decision of the State 
on the claims of companies can be saved, I hope her 
other conditions will be relaxed."* 

In the autumn of 1782 the New York cession was 
brought up by itself with a proposition to accept it 
without prejudice to the Virginia and Connecticut propo- 
sitions ; but the Virginians opposed it, because it would 
merely substitute the United States for New York in 
the boundary questions then pending, f Six months later 
(April, 1783,) Congress received a memorial from Moses 
Hazen, Colonel of the 2nd Canadian regiment, "Congress' 
own," as it was called, praying that a tract of land on Lake 
Erie be allotted for the use of the Canadian soldiers, 
who had fought for the American cause. Wilson, of 
Pennsylvania, improved the opportunity afforded by 
the reading of the memorial to propose that a commit-, 
tee be named to report proper measures to be taken 
with respect to the Western lands, as emigration thither 
was rapidly increasing. Madison opposed the motion 
as inopportune. Efforts were then in full progress to 
secure consent of the States to a scheme for raising 
general revenue and Wilson's motion, if agreed to, would 
arouse jealousy among the States with consequent op- 

* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), I, 232, 233. 
tid., I, 251, n. 



5o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

position to Federal measures. Until Congress should 
acquire the lands through their cession by the States 
no steps to dispose of them could properly be taken, 
he said. Pending such acquisitions it was the duty of 
the States to suppress irregular settlements. Wilson 
repHed that there was no need of waiting for action by 
the States, as all the territory over which the States had 
not actually exercised jurisdiction belonged of right to 
the United States. Madison called his attention to 
the fact that Pennsylvania had on a former occasion, 
in a teiTitorial dispute, contended that exercise of juris- 
diction was not a proper test of the territorial rights of 
the States; but if it were, Virginia had exercised juris- 
diction over the Illinois territory and other places north- 
west of the River Ohio. As a matter of fact, he de- 
clared, the treaty of peace with Great Britain did not 
comprehend any territory not already claimed by some 
one of the States. He was of opinion that subsequent 
action by the States might render any action at the 
present time unnecessary.* Alexander Hamilton shared 
Wilson's view, that the right to the lands lay with the 
United States, but he thought the private claims de- 
served consideration and moved an amendment in their 
favour, June lo, 1783. As the consideration of the 
question proceeded, however, these claims were "tacitly 
excluded," and the land companies in consequence 
opposed the inpending settlement. Yet, it would ap- 
pear that their interests lay upon the side of a settlement, 
for non-action upon their claims would enable them to 
ask Congress to consider them later when they would 
have only Congress to deal with. At present they 
might be sure that Virginia would not recognize their 
right to an acre of land, and it was equally certain that 
Congress would not extend authority over the Western 
territory by use of force against Virginia. 

On June 30, 1783, the first step was taken positively 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 444, et scq. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 51 

pointing to an acceptance of the Virginia cession upon 
a compromise. The committee having the matter in 
charge reported in favour of that part of the Virginia 
conditions providing for the State's re-imbursement 
for reducing the British posts at Kaskaskia and Vin- 
cennes.* At once New Jersey sent a vigorous remon- 
strance to Congress, calHng attention to the claim of 
the State made as early as 1778 to a share in the Western 
territory, which was the common property of all the 
States, and belonged no more to \^irginia than it did to 
New Jersey. The Virginia conditions of cession were 
characterized as "partial, unjust and illiberal. "f The 
coalition against Virginia at this time comprised, be- 
side New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Rhode Island 
and Delaware. Maryland proposed an ingenious sub- 
stitute for the Virginia ofTer. With considerable minute- 
ness it described the territory France had ceded Great 
Britain in 1763, and the portion of it ceded to the United 
States by Great Britain in the treaty of peace. It was 
the United States "as one undivided and independent 
nation, with all and every power exercised by the King 
of Great Britain" that succeeded to the British title. 
Congress was reminded that as early as 1779 Maryland 
had instructed her delegates in Congress to maintain 
"that a country unsettled at the commencement of 
this war, claimed by the British crown, and ceded to it 
by the Treaty of Paris, if wrested from the common 
enemy, by the blood and treasure of the 13 States, 
should be considered as common property, subject to 
be parcelled out by Congress into free, convenient and 
independent governments, in such manner and at such 
times, as the wisdom of that Assembly shall hereafter 
direct." Accordingly, Congress was now requested to 
appoint a committee to report what territory lay without 
the actual boundaries of the individual States, and 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, 474, et seq. 
t Journals of Congress (Ed. 1800), VIII, 204-205. 



52 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

within those of the United States, and what parcels were 
most ehgible for one or more independent States, and 
to provide for the opening of a land office forthwith. 
New Jersey alone voted with Maryland for this prop- 
osition.* 

The Virginia proposal was now in the hands of a 
friendly committee composed of Rutledge of South 
Carolina, Ellsworth of Connecticut, Bedford of Dela- 
ware, Gorham of Massachusetts, and Madison. The 
report which they submitted reflected the compromise 
which had been arranged under Madison's advice. The 
condition that the claims of the land companies be 
specifically declared void was rejected. The promise 
that the ceded territory would be a common fund to be 
used for the benefit of all the States was deemed suffi- 
cient to satisfy this point. The condition that all of 
Virginia's remaining territory be confirmed to her was 
also rejected, because it would be obviously unfair for 
the United States to thus take the side of one State 
against any other State with which she might have a 
boundary dispute. If there was no such dispute the 
Articles of Confederation presented sufficient security 
in the clause which confirmed each State in its sover- 
eignty; if there was a dispute, the Articles themselves 
provided all the legal machinery for settling it. ■ All the 
States voted in favour of accepting the committee's re- 
port, except New Jersey and Maryland, New Hampshire 
being divided.! . The action of Congress being referred 
back to the State, the Virginia Assembly acted favour- 
ably, after a hot fight by a vote of fifty-three to forty- 
one. Many members were accused of deriving personal 
profit from the new arrangement and some of them were 
defeated for re-election the following autumn. J On 
March i, 1784, the delegates in Congress, Thomas Jeffer- 
son, S. Hardy and Arthur Lee, signed the deed of cession. 

* Journals of Congress (Ed. 1800) VIII, 254. 
fid., VIII, 258. 

% Benjamin Hawkins to Madison, Sweet Springs, September 4, 1784, 
Department of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 53 

The final consummation thus occurred, as it happened, 
after Madison left Congress, but the guiding hand through- 
out the proceedings had been his, and it was his patience 
and tactical skill that prevented defeat, and his advice 
that secured a timely compromise and practical success 
for Virginia's conditions. 

/ 



CHAPTER VII 

THE MISSISSIPPI QUESTION 

Intimately connected with the subject of the back 
lands and of more vital consequence to the future of 
America was the question of the boundary between 
the United States and Spanish territory and the right 
of navigating the Mississippi River. 

By her chartered limits and Clark's conquests, Vir- 
ginia claimed the territory to the banks of the river, 
and the General Assembly by resolution of November 5, 

1779, ordered the delegates in Congress to favour the 
free navigation of the river to the sea. The question 
was, of course, an international one, and involved nego- 
tiations with Spain by a Power not yet independent. 

In June, 1779, Spain and England were virtually at 
war, and the opportunity seemed to be ripe for securing 
Spain as an ally of the United States. In 1756 she had 
lost the Floridas to Great Britain, and by resolution of 
September 15, 1779, Congress held out to her the pros- 
pect of regaining them with America's help, provided 
"the United States should enjoy the free navigation of 
the River Mississippi into and from the sea." John 
Jay, our minister at Madrid, reported that the desired 
alliance was impossible at this price, but Congress agreed 
unanimously to adhere to the condition, and October 4, 

1780, appointed Madison, Sullivan, of New Hampshire, 
and Duane, of New York, a committee to draw up an 
instruction to Jay on the subject, a copy of the instruc- 
tion to be sent to Franklin at Paris. The paper was 
prepared by Madison, and October 17 he presented the 
completed draft, which Congress accepted without 
change. It was the first important State paper to come 

54 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 55 

from his pen in Congress, and it put him at once in the 
front rank of the members, for it is probable that no 
other member could have prepared an argument so 
faultless and adequate from the American point of view. 
It laid down the principle that, as the question of 
boundary between Spanish and British territory in 
America had been settled by the treaty of 1763 between 
Spain and Great Britain, the United States succeeded 
to all the benefits Great Britain had derived from the 
treaty. The King of England had exercised sover- 
eignty over his American colonies not because he was 
recognized as King by the people of England, but by 
the people of America. The territory held in his name 
was held for them, and became theirs when they threw 
off his yoke and assumed sovereignty themselves. Cer- 
tain portions of the territory in question were in the 
possession of Spain when her relations with England 
were broken off, but these were only a few imimportant 
places and it could not be successfully contended that 
they controlled the surrounding territory. If the right 
to the country depended on conquest the United States 
had a more extensive claim than Spain, having con- 
quered all the important posts on the Illinois and Wa- 
bash and established civil government over the inhabi- 
tants. It was true Great Britain held parts of the ter- 
ritory, but these parts were not subject to conquest by 
any power other than the United States. To admit 
otherwise would be to admit that any part of the United 
States captured or to be captured by Great Britain was 
subject to such conquest, and New York, Long Island, 
and other places in the enemy's hands might be perma- 
nently severed from the American Union. The most 
natural boundary between the United States and Span- 
ish possessions was the ]\Iississippi, and it was less likely 
than any other to become a subject of dispute. As the 
sovereignty of the soil was a descendible right, so was 
the free navigation of the river, and the fact that Spain 
was in possession of both banks at the mouth was neither 



56 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

a natural nor an equitable bar to prevent the use of the 
river. The usages of nations under such circumstances 
gave no further right than the imposition of a moderate 
toll on commerce. Vattel was quoted to show that an 
innocent passage was due all nations at peace even for 
troops through a friendly State, and this applied equally 
to water passage. In this case, however, it involved 
also a free port at the mouth of the river, as to navigate 
the river vessels must be so constructed that they could 
not go to sea. Stress was laid upon the material ad- 
vantages to be derived by Spain if she agreed to Amer- 
ica's wishes. The Western country would soon be 
overspread with people, and in the nature of things 
they would for years to come be engaged wholly in ag- 
ricultural pursuits. Their consumption of foreign man- 
ufactures would necessarily be large, and the most 
natural channel for exchange of products would be the 
Mississippi. If this channel were closed, commerce 
would perforce go northward up the rivers having their 
sources near the lakes, thence by short portages to the 
lakes or rivers flowing into them, thence through the 
lakes, down the St. Lawrence to England, instead of 
down the Mississippi to the benefit of Spain and France.* 

The bold argument advanced in this instruction was 
negatived by the fears of America herself. In less than 
a year after it was written British military successes in 
the South were such that it seemed probable the whole 
of South Carolina and Georgia, and even possibly Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina, would fall into the hands of 
the enemy. The armed neutrality of Europe under 
Catharine II of Russia began to make itself felt, and 
serious fears were entertained that the allied neutrals 
would force a peace between the United States and 
Great Britain upon the basis of each belligerent keep- 
ing such territory as each actually held — the uti posseditis. 
As this would mean a disastrous dismemberment of the 
United States a cry arose outside of Congress and within 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), 1,82. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 57 

it to abandon the Mississippi for the sake of an alHance 
with Spain. A little more than a month after the in- 
struction to Jay had left, Georgia and South Carolina 
moved its reconsideration, and Theodoric Bland, Mad- 
ison's only colleague at the time, changed front com- 
pletely, and wrote to Jefferson, then Governor of Vir- 
ginia, November 22, 1780,* saying he thought the dis- 
tant prospect of free navigation of the river ought to be 
abandoned for the immediate benefit of an alliance and 
probable independence. He showed the letter to Madi- 
son who refused to sign it, but Jefferson transmitted it 
to the Assembly, December 5. Madison and Bland sent 
a joint letter dated December 13, asking for instructions, 
which was laid before the Assembly, f The instructions 
were passed January 2 and were: "Every further or 
" other demand of the said navigation to be ceded, if in- 
sisting on the same is deemed an impediment to a treaty 
with Spain." Fortunately, Jay himself was then op- 
posed to the abandonment of the American position, 
and when the instruction of Congress rescinding that 
which Madison had drafted reached him, he stated to 
the Spanish Government that the American offer must 
be availed of at once, as there was no obligation to re- 
new it in the future. Spain did not accept, no alliance 
was formed, and the Mississippi remained an open ques- 
tion when Madison's first service in Congress ended. 

When Madison took his seat, the law of Virginia did 
not permit a delegate to serve more than three years 
in any term of six years. Madison's service would, 
therefore, have terminated in the autumn of 1782, but 
in May of that year the law of eligibility was repealed, 
and he was chosen for a fourth consecutive year, at the 
end of which there remained four months when he would 
be eligible to serve under the Articles of Confederation, 
which estabHshed a triennial rotation, but did not go 
into effect tiff the ratification, March i, 1781. It was 

* Department of State MSS. 

t "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), I, 102, «. 



58 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

proposed to re-elect him for this brief period, but he 
decHned to allow it. He was not, however, popular 
with all the members of the House of Delegates, a con- 
siderable opposition having developed from those who 
were habitually jealous of Congressional power and his 
advocacy of it. 

The treaty of peace with Great Britain terminated 
the desirability of a treaty of alliance with Spain, but in 
place of it came a demand from the Eastern States for 
a treaty of commerce. Unfortunately, diplomatic ne- 
gotiations with Spain were rendered difficult by the 
terms of the treaty of peace, a secret article of which 
provided that, if England should at some future day 
gain West Florida from Spain, the Southern boundary 
of the United States should extend beyond the line 
actually named in the treaty. This secret article be- 
came known at ]\Iadrid almost as soon as it was agreed 
upon, and the Spanish Government informed Congress, 
June 25, 1784, that Spain would not admit that the 
boundary between the United States, Louisiana and the 
Floridas had been truly described in the treaty, and 
that until a correct description should be given Spain 
would maintain her right to the exclusive navigation of 
the Mississippi and would not pei-mit American boats 
to use the river. 

Don Diego Gardoqui presented his credentials as 
Minister from Spain July 2, 1785, and John Jay, who 
had succeeded Livingston as Secretary of Foreign Af- 
fairs, was instructed to negotiate a commercial treaty 
with him. Gardoqui soon let it be known that he was 
commissioned to sign a liberal treaty, provided it did 
not touch Spain's right of exclusive use of the Mississippi. 
August 25, 1785, Jay was instructed to adhere to the 
position originally taken by the United States on this 
point, as set forth in the Madison instruction of 
October, 1780. It was, of course, apparent to Jay 
that an insistance upon this position meant the failure 
of the negotiations, and he asked for a committee from 



LIFE OF JA]\IES MADISON 59 

Congress with which he could secretly consult. Such 
a committee he hoped would have a majority of its 
members from those States which cared more for com- 
merce with Spain than for the use of the Mississippi, 
and his move was successful, for Monroe was the only 
member of the committee who regarded the Mississippi 
question as paramount to the commercial question. 
The negotiations with Gardoqui, therefore, proceeded 
upon a basis of closing the river for twenty-five or thirty 
years; and August 3, 1786, Jay laid his plan before Con- 
gress. Eveiything pointed to the probability of its 

success. 

Madison was not then in Congress, but his efforts for 
the right of free navigation of the river were as active 
in Virginia as they had been in Philadelphia. Except 
the problem of how to strengthen the Federal Govern- 
ment there was no subject which interested him so 
much. He never doubted that he was right and that 
the salvation of the country required that his views 
should prevail. Any agreement to close the river, even 
for a time, would, he believed, precipitate strife. "An 
impolitic and per\'erse attempt" of Spain to exclude 
American boats would, he wrote to Jefferson, August 20, 
1784, merely delay the development of the Western 
countiy; and, he added: Spain "can no more finally 
stop the current of trade down the river than she can 
that of the river itself. " He declared that Spain would 
not persist in her present attitude if America stood 
firm, for right was on the American side. Above New 
Orleans, there would soon be a population of millions, 
and it was too much to suppose that their interests 
could be sacrificed to those of a paltry Spanish^ town. 
Moreover, every argument now used by America for 
the freedom of the river Spain had herself employed in 
1609 when she contended for the freedom of the river 
■ Scheldt. Furthermore, American trade down the river 
would make New Orleans one of the most flourishing 
ports in the world and a loyal Spanish city, instead of 



6o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

remaining, as it was, a half-French town which hated 
Spain for her oppression. It was worth while for Spain 
to consider that the friendship of the United States would 
be better than the planting of seeds of permanent dis- 
sension and probable conflict. Spain also must be in- 
fluenced by public opinion in Europe, which was opposed 
to the notion that ownership of the mouth carried with 
it the control of the whole length of a river.* "The 
use of the Mississippi, " he wrote to Monroe in Congress,! 
"is given by nature to our Western country, and no 
power on Earth can take it from them." He impressed 
his views upon everyone who could influence a favour- 
able settlement of the subject. During the intimacy 
of a journey from Baltimore with Lafayette in Sep- 
tember, 1784, he imfolded his arguments and told 
him that such was the clash of interests between the 
United States and Spain that an actual rupture was 
imminent, imless France mediated between the two. 
If she did not she would, as an ally of Spain, share the 
odium of Spain. Lafayette said Spain was such a fool 
that allowances should be made for her, and he promised 
to write to Vergennes on the subject. He did so; but 
after leaving Madison he fell into the hands of the com- 
mercial party, and when he sailed for France was imder 
the impression that many people were willing to yield 
up the navigation of the Mississippi in return for com- 
mercial advantages. Madison wrote him a long letter, 
March 20, 1785, showing the impossibility of the main- 
tenance of the Spanish position, and Lafayette lent his 
influence in Paris on the side advocated by Madison. 

That side, however, was not only losing ground in 
Congress, but outside of Congress, and even in Virginia. 
Henry Lee, who at this time usually followed Madison's 
lead on public questions, failed to do so on this occasion, 
voted with the Jay party in Congress, and lost his re-elec- 
tion to that body in consequence. Washington, also, 

* " Works of Madison " (Cong. Ed.) , I, 93, et seq. 
t January 8, 1785, Id., I, 121, 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 6i 

thought the navigation of the river not absolutely neces- 
sary, and that it could be postponed until such time as the 
bordering country was more thickly populated. Madi- 
son's information, however, showed that Lee and Wash- 
ington were wrong. He had a number of relations 
and friends w'ho had emigrated to the Western country 
and kept hii^ informed of the trend of Western public 
opinion, and he knew that there was grave danger if 
the river was surrendered that the pioneers would aban- 
don the Federal Union as useless to them and seek the 
protection of a foreign power. George ]\Iuter wrote to 
him from Kentucky, February 20, 1787: "Our people 
are greatly alarmed at the prospect of the navigation 
of the Mississippi being given up, and I have not met 
with one man who would be \nlling to give the naviga- 
tion up, for ever so short a time, on any tenns what- 
soever. " From Pittsburgh, Februarys 21, 1787, John 
Campbell wrote: "The minds of all the Western people 
are agitated on account of the proposed cession of the 
Mississippi navigation to Spain. Every person talks 
of it with indignation and reprobates it as a measure 
of the greatest Injustice and Despotism, declaring that 
if it takes place they will look upon themselves released 
from all Federal Obligations and fully at Liberty to 
seek alliances & connections wherever they can find 
them and that the British officers at Detroit have already 
been tampering with them. I am apprehensive that 
these matters will hasten the Separation of the District 
of Kentucky prematurely from the other part of the 
State, the Inhabitants of North Carolina to the West- 
ward of Cumberland mountain being desirous to join 
the People of Kentucky in forming one State."* 

When the success of the Jay party appeared to be 
most probable Aladison was in the Virginia Assembly 
and the news caused him serious embarrassment. As 
the champion of extension of Federal power, he had 
been telling his colleagues that Congress was attentive 

♦^Department of State MSS. 



62 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

to the wants of all parts of the country equally, and 
that the interests of the West would be served better 
if Congress were granted more authority. The news 
from Philadelphia seemed to be a denial of these prom- 
ises. The jealousy of the influence of the Northern 
States in National affairs increased. There were thirty 
members of the Assembly from Kentucky, and their 
opposition to a Government apparently about to barter 
away their interests was to be expected. IMany Vir- 
ginians who had been Federalists heretofore became 
lukewarm, and worst of all, Patrick Henry, whose aid 
for Federal measures Madison had been hoping to secure, 
became cold. The opposition of the Western members 
to the project of closing the ^Mississippi was, however, 
the very feeling upon which Madison now worked to 
prevent them from leaving his party. He pointed out, 
truly enough, that if the right of navigation of the river 
should be abandoned by Congress it would be because 
the Federal Government was too weak to assert it, 
and feared a war for which it was powerless to prepare. 
The remedy, therefore, was to do away with the power- 
lessness and give real authority to the general Govern- 
ment. Caught by this reasoning the Kentucky mem- 
bers supported Madison's resolutions for the Philadel- 
phia convention, and it Vv^as passed November 9, 1786. 
In return he wrote a vigorous protest against the con- 
templated treaty, which was adopted by a unanimous 
vote November 29th.* 

Soon afterwards Madison sought and secured an 
election to the Continental Congress, his chief object 
being to continue there his efforts to defeat the pro- 
jected treaty. In the meantime occurred those cir- 
cumstances which usually happen to hasten a political 
crisis and which no statesmanship can foresee. An 
adventurer named Thomas Amis, living in the Western 
country, loaded a boat with merchandise and attempted 
to go down the Mississippi. On June 6, 1786, he was 

* Rives, II, 109, et seq. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 63 

seized and his cargo confiscated by the Spanish authori- 
ties at Natchez. He was himself released and left to 
make his way homeward overland, and as he journeyed 
he told his story and it aroused the settlers. When 
the inhabitants of the American post at Vincennes 
heard it they were so wrought up that they looted the 
store of a Spanish merchant in the place by way of re- 
prisal. Vincennes then being in Virginia territory, the 
State took measures to protect Spanish interests, and 
the affair was reported to Congress in the spring of 1787. 
At the same time a memorial was presented from North 
Carolina setting forth the seizure of Amis's boat. These 
incidents were a practical argument against the possi- 
bility of stopping emigration to the West, and showed 
that if trade down the river were stopped trouble would 
follow. They furnished a reason for a call upon the 
Secretary of Foreign Affairs for a report upon the con- 
dition of the negotiations with Spain. 

The position of that officer was always a peculiarly 
difficult one. He was obliged to report to the full Con- 
gress whenever called upon and Congress had no stable 
poHcy, but changed his instructions whenever it saw fit. 
He could not even be certain of being permitted to 
manage the affairs intiiisted to him without interference, 
for the members of Congress did not hesitate to com- 
municate directly and without his knowledge with 
foreign ministers. Such communication Madison ac- 
cidentally had with Gardoqui in March, 1787. The 
Spaniard attempted to support the position of his Gov- 
ernment by using the Tagus River as an illustration. 
It flowed from Spain through Portugal, but Spain had 
never claimed a right to navigate it, deeming the pos- 
session by Portugal of both banks of the river at its 
mouth an undisputed barrier. He was then asked 
whether he contended for the same right of Spain to 
the Mississippi, where Spain had only five acres of terri- 
tory at the mouth of the river. He replied that Spain 
had more territory than this, but when pressed to specify 



64 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

what it was, he could make no definite reply. He 
hinted, however, that the consequences would be dan- 
gerous if Virginia's views prevailed. In order to pla- 
cate him his attention was called to the recent action 
of the Virginia Assembly denouncing the seizure of 
Spanish property at Vincennes; and with a view to 
alarming him he was told that the feeling in the West 
against Spain was becoming bitter and that the in- 
habitants were even threatening to go over to Great 
Britain. 

The report made by Jay to Congress, April ii, 1787, 
was a frank disclosure of the state of his negotiations 
with Gardoqui. Repeated conversations with the min- 
ister had, he said, produced nothing, for the minister 
would not yield on the Mississippi question. He would 
not even agree to an article clearly implying the right 
of the United States to navigate the river, and "ex- 
pressly forebearing the use during the term of the treaty " ; 
but Jay thought he might agree to an article accom- 
plishing this object by stipulating merely that the river 
would not be used by the United States during the term 
of the treaty, and observing silence on the question of 
right. The abandonment of the navigation while the 
treaty should run was an alternative for war, and Con- 
gress must decide upon one or the other. It was devel- 
oped also that Jay considered himself empov/ered by 
the votes of seven States to proceed with the negotia- 
tions upon the basis outlined in his letter. 

The division on the subject had generally been that 
of the North, which voted for the treaty, against the 
South, which voted with Virginia; but New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania had never been permanently on the North- 
em side. The Assembly of the former State now sent 
positive instructions to the delegates in Congress to 
oppose the treaty and the personnel of the Pennsyl- 
vania delegation changed, a majority going with Vir- 
ginia. This was a natural development, as part of the 
State lay in the Mississippi valley. Rhode Island also 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 65 

changed her vote, but from unworthy motives. Judg- 
ing other States by herself she supposed that the Eastern 
States desired to close the river, so as to throw out of 
competition in the market for public lands the extensive 
Western country. The real reason, however, was sim- 
ply that the Eastern States desired commerce with 
Spain; and they did, undoubtedly, prefer that the Mis- 
sisippi should be closed, since if it became a highway 
of commerce it would take much of the trade which 
otherwise would be forced to the Eastward. This 
reason was frankly avowed by Gorham of Massachusetts, 
in the course of the debate. 

Jay's report being made, Madison moved its reference 
to a committee, and the vote on the subject disclosed 
the fact that the party in favour of the treaty was prob- 
ably in the minority. On April 18, he moved that the 
negotiations be transferred to Madrid. If this could 
be done they would be taken from the hands of Jay 
to those of Jefferson, who would be sent as minister. 
This motion was a revival of one made by Pinckney of 
South CaroHna when Madison was not in Congress. Of 
course. Jay reported against it with considerable feeling. 
Madison also called upon Congress to declare that the 
vote of seven States ought not to be regarded as suffi- 
cient authority upon which to negotiate the treaty. 
King, of Massachusetts, showed that there had been 
twelve States present when Jay received authority to 
negotiate upon the basis of the non-use of the river. 
This was true, but it was equally true that the Articles 
of Confederation required nine States to assent to a 
treaty before it could become effective, and that only 
seven States had since been shaping the negotiations. 
What would they avail, if it was obvious that their re- 
sult would be rejected? The object of Madison's 
motion was, however, dilatory, and to kill the treaty 
by debate. In the midst of the debate an adjournment 
was had and the treaty disappeared from view for eigh- 
teen months. When Madison left New York to go to 



66 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

Philadelphia to attend the Federal Convention he was 
able to announce that the project of shutting the Mis- 
sissippi "was at an end." And so it was for the time 
being, thanks chiefly to Madison. But Jay and his 
party had strong arguments on their side. A commer- 
cial treaty with Spain would have benefited many. Their 
mistake was in supposing it would have lessened the 
friction between the two Powers, whereas it would really 
have increased it, for the Western adventurers would 
have broken the treaty. 



CHAPTER VIII 

VIRGINIA EMANCIPATIONISTS 

One reason why Madison held a commanding posi- 
tion in the Continental Congress was that he was more 
assiduous in attendance than most of his associates, 
who came and went having regard chiefly to the affairs 
of their respective States and their own personal con- 
venience, and holding the concerns of the Union as of 
secondary importance. As he was always on the spot 
his influence was naturally greater than theirs. While 
his public duties were thus laborious, his private cir- 
cumstances were trying and his pressing pecuniary em- 
barrassment caused him incessant worry. 

The provision made by Virginia for her delegates in 
Congress would have been a liberal one if it had been 
paid. At first they were allowed food for their horses 
and ser\^ants, house rent and fuel, and twenty dollars 
for each day of attendance on Congress, and two dollars 
for every mile of travel going and coming. To en- 
courage economy they were required to submit their 
household accounts to the State auditors.* At the 
May session of the Assembly, 1782, this provision was 
repealed, and they were allowed eight dollars a day 
specie standard, while in actual attendance. As a 
bachelor of unostentatious habits Madison's expenses 
were not heavy. He kept but one servant and two 
horses, and he had no separate house. But the treasury 
of the State could seldom pay him or his colleagues, and 
they were compelled to make common cause in their 
poverty ; when one received a draft he shared it with the 
others. In ]\Iarch, 1783, the State auditors adjusted 

* Rives, I, 518, et seq. 

67 



68 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

Madison's accounts and found £865 8s. ^d. due him,* 
the whole of which he never received, at any rate while 
in Philadelphia. His father sent him money from time 
to time, but not enough, and October 8, 1782, he wrote 
Edmund Randolph that he then owed about $350. In 
his distress he had recourse to two Jew brokers, Cohen 
and Haym Salomon. The latter was a native of Poland, 
a friend and fellow countryman of Pulaski. He re- 
fused to receive interest for loans to members of the 
Congress and when he died in 1784 his family received 
nothing from his estate, f 

In the same boarding house with Madison were the 
\ other Virginia delegates, the French minister, Barbe de 

^'^' Marbois (also a client of Salomon's), J General James 

Floyd, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and 
a delegate in Congress from New York, and his daughter 
Catherine, a beautiful, vivacious girl, just sixteen years 
of age. There were several older ladies in the house one 
of whom acted, as it would appear, as the friend and 
adviser of Miss Floyd. 

In those days a girl was accounted to be a woman at 
an early age and usually entered society at sixteen, and 
Catherine Floyd took her place among the other board- 
ers as a young lady. Madison thus saw her every day 
and one of his few absences from the sittings of Congress 
was when he accompanied her and her father from 
Philadelphia as far as Brunswick, New Jersey, on their 
way to New York early in the spring of 1783. The chief 
romance of his life was then taking place, for he and 
Catherine were engaged to be married. He was double 
her age, and youth lay far behind him, and he was too 
old and sedate for a young girl in the first flush of woman- 
hood. He was her father's friend and contemporary 
rather than hers. What did she care that a great career 
was predicted for him? She wanted pleasure, ardour, 

* Department of State MSS. 

t New York Public Library (Lenox) MSS. 

Jld. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 69 

the young life ; not politics, prosy disctission and repose. 
Yet the young statesman laid at her feet a treasure 
which a tamer, maturer nature would have prized. He 
was the soul of honour, reared in surroundings health- 
ful to moral and mental development, looking at life 
through the eyes of a gentleman, chivalrous, high- 
minded and pure, and after the habit of men of his class 
he held women in perfect respect and reverence. The 
poetic temperament which he had suppressed after he 
left Princeton must have revived under the influence of 
his passion, and the pleasing prospect was before him 
of a riper domestic life than he had thus far known, which 
should keep pace with his expanding public usefulness. 
Unfortunately the prospect was not pleasing to Catherine 
Floyd. She was docile enough for a time, and appeared 
to yield to Madison's suit, which her father also urged; 
but there was a young clergyman in Philadelphia, who, 
report says, "hung round her at the harpsichord," and 
made love to her while Madison and her father were 
discussing paper money ; and when the affairs of a con- 
tinent were being shaped with Madison as a chief actor 
in the Continental Congress, the affairs of his heart and 
Catherine Floyd's were being discussed and settled with 
the aid of the older woman who belonged to the yotmg 
parson's party, in the little boarding house world where 
she and IMadison hved. She decided in favour of the 
younger man, and jilted the Statesman, sending him his 
dismissal in a letter sealed with a piece of rye dough.* 
It is tradition also that she returned him, at the same 
time, his miniature, painted on ivory by C. W. Peale, 
in the back of which was set a knot of his hair and hers. 
He was not a man to burden his friends with his private 
griefs, and of the mortification and distress which this 
affair' must have caused him he left no record behind. 
Jefferson, as a privileged friend, ventured a few words 

* The author cannot find any reason for the use of rye doughy A 
good account of the jilting of Madison may be found m Gay s Madi- 
son," 43. etseq. 



70 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

of philosophical condolence, but the affair was not one 
to call for expressions of sympathy. He took up the 
burden of his work in which his interest was so great 
and found there the substitute for higher hopes, and the 
episode passed, leaving no permanent trace of bitter- 
ness in the victim. 

From the worry of debt and the cheerlessness of the 
Philadelphia boarding house Madison escaped early in 
December, when he returned to the congenial atmos- 
phere of his home in Orange County. He had been in 
public office for nine years, first in the county, then at 
Williamsburg, then at Philadelphia, and his experience 
was greater than that of any other Southern public man 
of the same age. 

The winter of 1783-84 was a severe one and unfavour- 
able to open air employment, and in the solitude of the 
long hours Madison appHed himself assiduously to the 
study of law. It was then his intention and desire to 
practise it as a profession, in order to avoid a planter's 
life, and gain a subsistence depending, as he said, "As 
little as possible upon the labour of slaves."* His dis- 
like of slavery was never concealed. From Philadelphia 
he wrote his father, September 8, 1783, that his negro 
boy Billy, who had run away and been recovered, should 
not be sent back to Virginia as he was not a safe com- 
panion for the other slaves. Accordingly he sold him 
in Philadelphia for seven years, the limit permitted by 
Pennsylvania law. He was unwilling, he said, to trans- 
port him and punish him for simply "coveting that 
liberty for which we have paid the price of so much 
blood and have proclaimed so often to be the right, and 
worthy the pursuit of every human being, "f During 
the progress of the war, he proposed to Joseph Jones 
(November 28, 1780,) to complete the Virginia quota 
of troops by liberating and making soldiers of the blacks. 
This would be "consonant to the principles of liberty, 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), II, 154. 
fid., II, 15. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 71 

which ought never to be lost sight of in a contest for 
hberty and with white officers and a majority of white 
soldiers, no imaginable danger could be feared from 
themselves, as there certainly could be none from the 
effect of the example on those who should remain m 
bondage, experience having shown that a freedman 
immediately loses all attachment and sympathy with 
his former fellow slaves."* 

Whatever the merits of the scheme as a measure ot 
emancipation it was a weak one from a military pomt 
of view, and is one of the few instances where he ven- 
tured to give miUtary advice. In reply, Jones pointed 
out with perfect truth that the plan, if put mto effect, 
would probably tend to increase the army of the enemy, 
who would also be sure to arm the blacks. He added: 
"The freedom of these people is a great and desirable 
object. To have a clear view of it would be happy for 
Virginia; but whenever it is attempted, it must be, I 
conceive, by some gradual course, allowing time as they 
go off for labourers to take their places, or we shall suffer 
exceedingly under the sudden revolution which perhaps 
arming them would produce."! 

The leading minds in Virginia were in favour of eman- 
cipation When Jefferson introduced his digest of laws 
for the State in 1779 he intended to add an amendment 
providing for the freedom of all blacks after a certain 
date and their deportation after a certain age, and his 
proposed Constitution for the State, written m 1783, 
had an emancipation article. Of his amendment he 
wrote in his old age : " But it was found that the pubhc 
mind would not yet bear the proposition, nor will it 
bear it even at this day." He regarded the ultimate 
freedom of the blacks as certain, and their deportation 
as a necessary consequence, as the two races could not 
live both free under the same Government. J 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), I, io6. 
t " Letters of Joseph Jones " (Ford) , 63, 64. 
% RandaU's "Life of Jefferson," I, 227. 



72 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

How George Mason felt on the subject may be gath- 
ered from his speech in the Philadelphia Constitutional 
Convention in 1787. 

"Slavery discourages arts and manufactures," he 
said. "The poor despise labour when performed by 
slaves. They prevent the emigration of whites, who 
really enrich and strengthen a country. They produce 
the most pernicious effect on manners. Every master 
of slaves is bom a petty tyrant. They bring the judg- 
ment of heaven on a country. As nations cannot be 
rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be 
in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, 
Providence punishes national sins by national calami- 
ties. He lamented that some of our Eastern brethren 
had, from a lust of gain, embarked in this nefarious 
traffic."* 

Edmund Randolph wrote to Madison in 1789 that he 
desired to go to Philadelphia to practise law. "For if I 
found that I could live there I could emancipate my 
slaves, and thus end my days without undergoing any 
anxiety about the injustice of holding, them, "f 

Patrick Henry, who did not think in unusual channels, 
is supposed to have introduced, as he certainly approved, 
the liberal law permitting the emancipation of slaves 
passed at the May session, 1782, of the State Legisla- 
ture. It recited that application had been made by 
people disposed to manumit their slaves for permission 
to do so, and it should, therefore, be lawful for any person 
by will or other written instrument under his hand and 
seal, attested and proved in county court by two wit- 
nesses, to free any or all of his slaves. The friends of 
this law hoped it would be followed by a still more 
liberal provision. I 

In November, 1785, a petition was presented to the 
House of Delegates in favour of a general manumission. 

* Madison Papers (Gilpin), III, 1390. 

t Conway's "Life of Edmund Randolph, 125. 

% Henry's "Life of Patrick Henry." II, 174. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 73 

It produced no action, of course, but many members 
expressed their entire approval of the principle it ex- 
pressed. So general became the feeling against slave- 
holding that a rumour gained currency that the chief 
planters intended to rid themselves of their negroes. 
Jacob Read, of South Carolina, wrote to Madison, Au- 
gust 29, 1785, from Congress, where, he said, Madison 
was sorely needed: "An opinion prevails in South 
Carolina that the principal holders of slaves in your 
State wish to divest themselves of that kind of property 
and that tolerable good purchases might be made on 
good Security being given for payments by instalments 
with a regular discharge of the interest. 

" Under the impression of this opinion the Honourable 
Mr. J. Rutledge of South Carolina has addressed a letter 
to me wishing to become engaged in any purchase I 
may be able to make, to make a joint concern."* 

The Quakers in Virginia formed "The Humane or 
Abolition Society, " and after the adoption of the Federal 
Constitution, Robert Pleasants, the president, wrote 
to Madison (June 6, 1 791)—" believing thou art afriend 
to general liberty"— to ask him to introduce in the 
House of Representatives a memorial which had been 
prepared against the slave trade. He said he had a 
strong desire to see some plan of general emancipation 
introduced in the State and added: "Knowing the 
sentiments of divers slave holders, who are favourable 
to the design, I wish to have thy judgment on the pro- 
priety of a Petition to our assembly for a law declaring 
the children of slaves to be bom after the passing such 
act, to be free at the usual ages of eighteen and twenty- 
one years." A little later he sent the petition to Madi- 
son, but it was inopportune.! "The public mind would 
not yet bear the proposition." 

Kentucky was settled chiefly by Virginians, among 
whom were many of Madison's friends and several of 

* Department of State MSS. 
tid. 



74 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

his relations. They frequently wrote to him for advice 
in the period of their State making, and H. Taylor, his 
cousin on his father's side, described the emancipation 
sentiment in the Constitutional Convention of 1792 in 
a letter from Danville, April 16. "The manumission 
of slaves," he said, "was a matter much debated in 
the house, some was for its taking place immediately 
others for a gradual mode, but CoP Nicholas w*^ not give 
up the plan adopted in the Resolve for that purpose, a 
considerable number, as well as myself w*^ have been 
very glad to have seen a stop put to the ingress of slaves 
after a certain period and an immediate prohibition of 
any for sale — instead of leaving the matter so much to the 
legislature. "* The clause which George Nicholas insisted 
upon inhibited the Legislature from emancipating slaves 
without the consent of the owners, or without paying 
the owners, and from preventing immigrants from 
bringing their slaves with them, but laws might be 
passed permitting owners to emancipate their slaves 
and preventing slaves from being brought into the State 
as merchandise. That Nicholas should have resisted 
the emancipation sentiment in the convention is ex- 
plicable on the theory that he did not believe the people 
of the State would ratify the Constitution if it contained 
an emancipation clause. 

An extract from a letter from Francis Corbin, a typical 
Virginia planter, with many acres, many children and 
many slaves, may be quoted here. He was an ardent 
patriot and a devoted friend and admirer of Madison, 
to whom he wrote from his place, " The Reeds, " June 15, 
1797: 

"The dislike I have had all, my life, to slavery in- 
creases as I advance in years. Indeed now I have be- 
come a married man, and am obHged to be more con- 
versant with it than I ever was before, I find it to be 
intolerable. Reluctant as I shall be to leave the Old 
Dominion, yet my aversion to slavery will conquer all 

* Department of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 75 

my native predelictions and cause me to emigrate East- 
ward."* He did not go, but died as he had Hved, an 
owner of slaves. 

Among the Madison papers is a half -finished essay he 
wrote on "The Influence of Domestic Slavery on Gov- 
ernment," which shows how clearly he understood the 
incompatibility of slavery with democracy: "In pro- 
portion as slavery prevails in a State, the Government, 
however democratic in name, must be aristocratic in 
fact. The power lies in a part instead of the whole ; in 
the hands of property, not of numbers. All the ancient 
popular governments were for this reason aristocracies. 
The majoritv were slaves, of the residue a part were in 
the country" and did not attend the Assemblies, a part 
were poor and tho in the city, could not spare the time 
to attend. The power was exercised for the most part 
by the rich and easy. Aristotle (de rep. lib. 3. cap. 184) 
defines a citizen or member of the sovereignty to be one 
who is sufficiently free from all private cares, to devote 
himself exclusively to the service of his country. See 
also Anacharsis, vol. 5, P- 28. The Southern States 
of America, are, on the same principle, aristocracies. 
In Mrginia the aristocratic character is increased by 
the rule of suffrage requiring a freehold in land, which 
excludes nearly half the free inhabitants, and must 
exclude a greater proportion as the population increases. 
At present the slaves and non-freeholders amount to 
neariy 3-4 of the State. The power is therefore in about 
1-4. Were the slaves freed and the right of suffrage 
extended to all, the operation of the Government might 
be very different. The slavery of the Southern States 
throws the power much more into the hands of property, 
than in the Northern States. Hence the people oi 
property in the former are much more contented with 
their established Government than the people of prop- 
erty in the latter, "t 

* Department of State MSS. 
tid. 



76 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

There is something pathetic in the spectacle of these 
fine individuals, — men like Corbin, Jones, Mason, Jeffer- 
son, Randolph and Madison,— and the thousands of 
others of their type, helpless in the folds of this monster 
which was crushed seventy years later in the blood of 
their descendants. They saw the idleness, shiftlessness 
and brutality that slavery engendered among their own 
race. They felt keenly what a glaring contradiction to 
their expressions of love of liberty it presented. They 
knew its injustice to the blacks, — that it was, as Mason 
said, a fundamental sin which carried sure retribution. 
And those who knew all this most thoroughly were the 
very ones whose higher qualities slavery did much to 
develop. It habituated them to the exercise of authority, 
and accustomed them to responsibility for the welfare 
and happiness of many human beings. Their dependents 
were so wholly dependent that they felt called upon to 
constantly exert their utmost endeavours to faithfully 
discharge their duties of dominion. And in the domestic 
economy the duties that fell to the women were such 
as expanded their better natures to an extraordinary 
degree, for to them fell the care of the sick and bereaved 
and the spiritual welfare of the poor souls whose con- 
dition never permitted the compassion of the mistress 
to sleep. 

Madison, like his associates, found himself the child 
of circumstances and yielded to them almost uncon- 
sciously. In August, 1784, his father formally deeded 
to him a farm of 560 acres, a part of the Montpelier 
tract,* but Madison never lived upon it and came into 
virtual possession, during his father's life, of Montpelier 
itself, and gradually fitted into his father's place as a 
planter, accepting the industrial career thus provided 
for him with its interests and cares, and unavoidable 
accompaniment of slave-holding. 

* MS. Orange County records. 



CHAPTER IX 

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 

The Virginia State Assembly elected ]\Iadison a mem- 
ber of the Governor's Council, because he had made his 
mark in the State Convention and in the Assembly of 
1776, and the Assembly sent him to Congress and kept 
him there because it had confidence in him; but the 
people of his county had given no sign that they held 
him in especial regard, for his election in 1776 had been 
accomplished chiefly by the prestige of his father. When 
he tried for a re-election, he was beaten by an insig- 
nificant opponent, who bribed the voters with whiskey. 
Therefore, when his law studies were interrupted by 
his election, with slight opposition, as a member of the 
House of Delegates in April, 1784, it was the first time 
since he had risen to prominence that he had fairly stood 
before his people and received a pronounced endorse- 
ment from them. He went to Richmond, where the 
State Capitol had been moved from Williamsburg in 1782, 
early in May, 1784, having as the chief purpose of his 
service to concert measures by which the general Gov- 
ernment might be strengthened. 

The two rival figures in the Legislature were Patrick 
Henry and Richard Henry Lee, and they were pitted 
against each other in spectacular forensic displays for 
which the Virginians had a peculiar weakness.* The 
ascendancy over the Legislature was with Henry. At 
the session of 1783 the two leaders measured forces in 
the contest for the speakership, when John Tyler was 
put forward by Henry in opposition to Lee and was elected 
by a vote of 61 to 20. At the session of 1784, Lee him- 

*Rives, I, 537. 

77 



78 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

self put Tyler in nomination and thus gracefully avoided 
another defeat.* There was less difference, poHtically, 
between Lee and Henry than appeared on the surface. 
While Lee was receiving his education in England and 
moving on terms of equality with the highest fashion 
of London, Henry was idling in backwoods country 
stores ; but the polished aristocrat and the half-educated 
man of the people both had in common a craving for popu- 
larity and applause, which often dominated their actions 
as public men. When Madison approached Henry on 
the subject of augmenting the power of the Federal Gov- 
ernment, Henry expressed himself as being strenuously 
in favour of it, but he had no plan. Lee, Madison re- 
ported, could not be depended upon.* 

As a matter of fact, both would have been willing to 
add to the powers of Congress if, at the same time, noth- 
ing of the powers of the State should be lost, but it was 
obvious that whoever threw his influence on the side of 
Congress necessarily threw it against the power of the 
State, and his popularity in the State would be sure to 
diminish in consequence. Madison's energetic efforts 
on the side of Congressional power had raised up a party 
opposed to him in the State Assembly and among his 
constituents his position was never impregnable until 
after the adoption of the Constitution, when, conditions 
being reversed, he found himself opposing an increase 
of national authority. It was not, however, the ques- 
tion of extension of Federal Power that first engrossed 
Madison's attention when he entered the Legislature, 
but the subject of religious freedom which from his 
early manhood had aroused in him the fire of passion 
as nearly as any subject ever did. 

After the separation from Great Britain the Episcopal 
Church in Virginia was under a cloud. Its disestablish- 
ment meant the withdrawal from the clergy of their 
means of subsistence, and many of them sympathized 

* Journal of the House of Delegates. 
♦"Writings of Madison" (Hunt) II, 51-52. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 79 

with the mother country, prompted so to do by their 
own interests. The non-Episcopal clergy, on the other 
hand, were of the patriot party and were men of better 
character generally than the Episcopalians, and while 
the Episcopal churches closed their doors or were un- 
attended the Baptist and Presbyterian congregations 
increased.* But religious observances were not as 
strictly kept as they had been in the old days, and war, 
with its consequent disordered conditions of society, 
brought an increase of crime and dishonesty. The 
two facts were put together — a decline in church at- 
tendance and an increase of immorality — and it was 
conceived that Legislative interference to help the 
churches would operate to improve the moral tone of 
the people. This view was held by Washington, Richard 
Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, Henry Tazewell, John Mar- 
shall, Joseph Jones, and a large number of representa- 
tive men, not all of them strong churchmen, but all of 
them men who beHeved that the State should compel 
the people to support the churches, f It was not without 
a struggle that the older and more conservative planters 
gave up all idea of the State maintaining the Episcopal 
Church, for it had been, from their infancy, a part of 
themselves, and a social as well as a political and religious 
institution. When some non-Episcopalians came to 
Richmond to urge the Legislature to repeal all acts 
giving the Episcopal Church peculiar privileges, they 
approached one of these old-school cavaliers who said 
"he was clear for giving all a fair chance, that there were 
many roads to heaven, and he was in favour of letting 
every man take his own way; but he was sure of one 
thing, that no gentleman would choose any but the Epis- 
copal. "| 

Petitions against favouring the Episcopal way were 

* Edmund Randolph's MS. "History of Virginia." Virginia His- 
torical Society. 

t Rives, I, 602. 

i Meade's "Old Churches and Families of Virginia," I, 50. The 
anecdote was told by Madison himself. 



8o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

presented soon after Madison took his seat in the Legis- 
lature by the Baptist and Presbyterian congregations 
in order, as they said, that "religious freedom be estab- 
lished upon the broad basis of perfect political equality. " 
The Episcopal Church, however, asked for an act of 
incorporation to manage its political affairs, and the 
only church incorporation bill brought forward was in 
response to this request. It provided, among other 
things, that the clergy when once elected by the vestries 
should be irremovable otherwise than by sentence of 
the convocation, and this, as Madison declared, would 
have been tantamount to "re-establishing their inde- 
pendence of the laity." Even the friends of religious 
legislation thought the bill too radical and it would have 
been defeated had it not been for Henry's efforts in its 
behalf.* Its consideration was postponed till the next 
session of the Assembly and the interest it aroused was 
cast in the shade by another and broader proposition. 

The Assembly did not have a quorum till May 12, 
1784, and the first committee appointed, according to 
the usual custom, was that on religion, Madison being 
made one of the members. Among the petitions con- 
sidered were a number asking that a general assessment 
be levied for the support of the churches. It was reported 
favourably, and July i the Assembly adjourned till the 
following November. 

The question came up again November 17 upon a 
resolution "That acts ought to pass for the incorpora- 
tion of all societies of the Christian religion which may 
apply for the same." This passed in the affirmative 
by a vote of 62 to 23. Among the minority with Madi- 
son were Wilson Cary Nicholas, John Taylor of Caro- 
line, Alexander White and John Breckenridge. The 
resolution was followed quickly by one from Patrick 
Henry — that "the people of the commonwealth, accord- 
ing to their respective abilities, ought to pay a moderate 
tax or contribution for the support of the Christian re- 

*ToJefferson, July 3, 1784, " Works of Madison " (Cong. Ed.), I, 88. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 8i 

ligion, or of some Christian church, or denomination, or 
communion of Christians, or of some form of Christian 
worship," which was adopted by a vote of 47 to 32, and 
a special committee, with Henry at its head, was ap- 
pointed to prepare a bill. Petitions favourable to it 
poured in, one coming from the United Presbyterian 
Church, and only one appearing against it.* Richard 
Henry Lee wrote to IMadison from Trenton, w^here he 
was attending the session of Congress, (November 26, 
1784,) "That he considered the bill a measure necessary 
to morality, that avarice was accomplishing the de- 
struction of religion for want of a legal obligation to 
contribute something to its support, "f This was the 
ground generally taken by the friends of the bill, and 
they were, undoubtedly, at this time a large majority 
of the Legislature and the people of the State. 

Almost alone among the leaders of thought m Vir- 
ginia Madison saw the fundamental error involved m 
the proposed legislarion. He had endeavoured to make 
such legislation impossible eight years before when he 
offered his amendment to the Bill of Rights, with the 
pregnant words, "And that therefore no man or 
class of men, ought, on account of religion to be 
invested ivith peculiar emoluments or privileges:' His 
argument against the bill was one of the most careful 
and elaborate ever constructed by him. A skeleton of 
it has been preserved, in which the line of thought is 
cleariy indicated. He began by laying down the broad 
proposition that religion was not within the purview 
of the civil power— that it was something separate, apart 
and precedent to it— that to establish Christianity by 
law would lead naturally to a legal estabhshment of 
uniformity of behef, and to penal laws to punish viola- 
tions of belief, and that the history of rehgious legisla- 
tion showed this had always been the tendency. The 
true question was not, Is religion necessary to the well- 

* Journal of the House of Delegates, 
t Dept. of State MSS. 



82 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

being of mankind ? but, Is the establishment of religion 
as a part of the civil administration of the State neces- 
sary for religion itself? The natural propensity of man 
was toward religion, and the experience of history showed 
that reHgion itself was corrupted by compulsory State 
establishment. Mr. Henry had shown how States had 
fallen when religion sank into decay, but these downfalls 
had happened in States which had reHgion established 
as part of their civil poHcy. Such a general assessment 
as the bill contemplated had, however, no parallel in 
history. He instanced the religious freedom of other 
States, — Pennsylvania, New Jersey, where religious 
freedom was provided by the early constitution granted 
her by the proprietaries, Rhode Island, New York and 
Delaware. He drew the case of the primitive Christianity, 
of the Reformation, and the dissenters formerly in 
Virginia, and traced the progress of religious freedom. 
Coming to a specific discussion of the measure before 
the House he insisted that it was impolitic, as it would 
interfere with immigration, which should be imtrammelled 
by fear of taxation for any spiritual purpose, and it 
would for the same reason encourage emigration as an 
escape from such taxation. The state of society did not 
show a reason for the measure. Recent war and bad 
laws were the cause of the disorganized condition, which 
was as bad in New England where religious legislation 
existed as in those States where it did not exist. The 
true remedy was to be found in continued peace, the 
passage of laws to cherish virtue, regular and exemplary 
administration of justice, personal example set by indi- 
viduals, voluntary associations for rcHgious purposes, 
the formation of which would be encouraged by the de- 
cisive defeat of the pending measure, thus depriving 
them of any hope of artificial support, and the educa- 
tion of the young. He showed what would be the prob- 
able effect of the measure, if it became a law. As the 
assessment was to be for the support of the Christian 
religion, the courts would be eventually called upon to 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 83 

decide what was Christianity — whether it was Trini- 
tarianism, Arianism or Socinianism — whether it in- 
volved salvation by faith or works; and the whole 
question of faith, doctrine and creed over which the 
world had been convulsed for ages and which was beyond 
the ken of any temporal tribunal would be before the 
judges. The end would be the definition by the State 
of what was orthodoxy and what was heresy. Such a 
condition he declared dishonoured Christianity, and he 
closed with a panegyric of that religion and an appeal to 
the real meaning of that clause of the Declaration of 
Rights wliich had been moulded from his broader amend- 
ment.* 

When the assessment bill was nearing its final stages 
and its passage appeared to be inevitable it was checked 
by the reintroduction of the bill, which had been post- 
poned from the last session, to incorporate the Episcopal 
Church. This time, however, it included the laity in its 
provisions and was thus shorn of the chief objectionable 
feature that had originally characterized it. Under 
these circumstances Madison resolved as a strategic 
movement to vote for it. "A negative of the bill," he 
wrote to Jefferson, January 9, 1785, " would have doubled 
the eagerness and pretexts for a much greater evil, — a 
general assessment, — which there is good ground to be- 
lieve was parried by this partial gratification of its 
warmest votaries."! The bill was passed by a vote of 
47 to 38, George and Wilson Cary Nicholas being among 
those who adhered to the opposition. J 

The advocates of rehgious legislation being placated 
by this success, it was proposed to them that the assess- 
ment bill be postponed, that it be printed and distributed, 
and the people invited "to signify their opinion respect- 
ing the adoption of such a measure to the next session of 
the Legislature" — an appeal which was reasonable 

♦"Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 88. 

tid., II, 113. 

t Journal of the House of Delegates. 



84 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

enough and was acceded to because there was every 
reason to believe the reply would be favourable to the bill. 
The Assembly adjourned January 5, 1785, and the dis- 
cussion was transferred to the people. 

The Episcopal clergy generally favoured the bill, and 
so did the Presbyterian ministers at first, being "as 
ready to set up an establishment Vv^hich is to take them 
in as they were to pull down that which shut them out, " 
as Madison put it. The Presbyterian laity, however, 
did not generally favour the measure, and their influence 
was sufficient to finally cause the general convention of 
Presbyterians to ask for the Act of Religious Freedom.* 

The credit for planning the campaign against the 
bill among the people does not belong to Madison, but 
to George Nicholas and his brother Wilson Gary Nicholas. 
In fact, Madison favoured making no campaign, and 
would have had the counties opposed to the bill take no 
action against it. On April 22, 1785, George Nicholas 
wrote to him from Charlottesville that his brother had 
told him of a conversation with Madison on the pro- 
priety of remonstrating and that JVIadison had advised 
against it. He was afraid this silence would be construed 
into assent, as the Assembly had only postponed the 
measure till it might know if it were agreeable to the 
people. A majority of the counties was in favour of 
the measure, but a majority of the people was not, 
and this would be denied if it did not appear by 
petition. Some petitions were sure to be sent, and he 
thought it would help the cause if all held the same 
language. Would Madison, if he agreed with him, draw 
up a petition of remonstrance? He was the man best 
able to do it. Nicholas would attend to its distribution 
in the counties. 

To these entreaties Madison yielded, and on July 7 
Nicholas wrote to acknowledge the receipt of the re- 
monstrance not a word of which he could change without 

* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 145- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 85 

marring it * It was printed as a broadside by the 
Phoenix Press in Alexandria, and copies were sent far 
and wide throughout the State, receiving thousands of 
signatures; and when the Assembly met in October 
the assessment bill was buried beneath the copies of this 
paper which came from every corner of the State. It 
was written in fifteen paragraphs and was an unanswer- 
able protest against all rcHgious legislation. It em- 
bodied the main arguments which Madison had made 
in his speech in the Assembly, but the speech had reached 
only a few scores of hearers, and the remonstrance 
reached thousands and carried conviction to them. 

The bill should be defeated, the remonstrance said, 
because it was, as the Bill of Rights declared, the right of 
every man to exercise his religion according to the dic- 
tates of conscience, and not according to the dictates of 
other men. Religion was, therefore, exempt from the 
authority of society at large, and especially from the 
creatures of that society, the Legislature. In asserting 
a right to embrace that religion which we believe to be 
of divine origin, we must accord an equal freedom to 
those whose minds have not yet been convinced by the 
evidence that has convinced us. The Christian religion 
explicitly disavowed a dependence upon the powers of 
this worid. It flourished without the assistance of human 
laws— in spite of every opposition from them. It 
was 'plain that if it was not invented by human 
policy it must have existed before it was estab- 
lished by human policy. To demand support for 
it would be a confession of weakness, and encourage 
in those who opposed it a belief that it could not 
stand on its own merits. When Christianity shone 
with greatest lustre was before it was incorporated as a 
civil policy. "Pride and indolence in the clergy, ignor- 
ance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, 
bigotry, and persecution" had followed church estab- 

* Dept. of State MSS The remonstrance may be found in "The 
Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 183. 



86 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

lishment. Contentious rivalry among the various Chris- 
tian sects would be sure to follow the passage of this 
bill, and had already become more vigorous in the dis- 
cussion of it. If it became a law men would evade it, 
and it would thus bring other laws into disrespect. 

The success of the remonstrance w^as extraordinary. 
It put the advocates of religious legislation on the de- 
fensive and made them a helpless minority. From 
having been in control a few months before, they were 
now the mere shattered remnant of a party. 

The bill to assess the people for the support of the 
Christian religion sank into the earth beyond the hope 
of resurrection, and in place of it appeared one of the 
greatest measures that Thomas Jefferson ever wrote — 
the Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia. 
He had drawn it in 1779 as a part of his revised code of 
laws for Virginia, but it lay moribund and unnoticed, 
till Madison introduced it as a fitting expression of the 
change in public opinion which his remonstrance had 
brought about. It was passed December 26, 1785,* 
and the battle for complete religious liberty in Virginia 
was won. 



* Hening's "Stats, at Large," 12, 84. 



CHAPTER X 

HOW THE ANNAPOLIS CONVENTION WAS CALLED 

Patrick Henry's general expressions in favour of 
strengthening the Federal Government were a tolerably 
correct reflection of the attitude of the Virginia Assem- 
bly on the subject. It amounted to an admission that 
something should be done, and specific dissent to every 
project brought forward to that end. As the session 
progressed it became evident that the legislation de- 
sired by the Federalists could not be secured; even if 
it could be what chance of concurrence would it have 
from twelve other State Legislatures? The outlook 
was gloomy indeed, and impending disaster was only 
averted by seizing a succession of circumstances and 
turning them to a purpose different from that which 
they had been designed to servx. The story of the 
manipulation of these occasions is the story of how the 
Annapolis Convention was called. 

The boundary between Virginia and Maryland was 
the Potomac River, and the charter of 1732 to Lord 
Baltimore defined it as the southern shore.* The Con- 
stitution of Virginia confirmed this boundary, but re- 
served the right of the free navigation of the river. 
Madison and others feared that this confirmation might 
be construed into a total surrender of jurisdiction over 
the river, thus leaving Virginia's commerce wholly at 
the mercy of such regulations as Maryland might choose 
to make. A harmonious agreement on regulations for 
the two States was obviously the best remedy for the 
threatened evil, and on April 25, 1784, Madison wrote 
to Jeft'erson and asked him to soimd the Maryland dele- 

* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 41- 

87 



88 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

gates in Congress on the subject of the appointment of 
commissioners from that State to meet commissioners 
from Virginia and draw up joint regulations for the 
navigation of the whole river, which should be sub- 
mitted for approval to the Legislature of each State. 
Favourable promises coming from the Maryland leaders, 
the Virginia Assembly, on Madison's motion, provided 
for a commission on June 28; and he, George Mason, 
Edmund Randolph and Alexander Henderson were 
named as commissioners, any three of whom should have 
power to act. 

On December 28, the Assembly, again on Madison's 
motion, gave the Virginia commissioners, or any two of 
them, authority to unite with the Maryland commis- 
sioners in representing to the State of Pennsylvania 
that it was in contemplation to promote the clearing 
of the Potomac River and extend its navigation from 
tide water as far upwards as practicable, and open a 
convenient road from the head of navigation to the 
waters running into the Ohio, and to ask the co-opera- 
tion of that State in providing convenient regulations 
for the use of the route. 

Almost simultaneously with the agreement to these 
instructions an act was passed incorporating the Poto- 
mac Company for the purpose of improving the naviga- 
tion of the river and opening communication with the 
Western country,* the terms of incorporation being 
the result of General Washington's personal negotiations 
with the government of I^Iaryland. He had cherished 
the project ever since 1754, when he went as a messenger 
for Governor Dunwiddie to the French forces on the 
Ohio, and in 1770 he put it into form in a letter to Gov- 
ernor Thomas Johnson, of Maryland, suggesting that 
extending the navigation of the river by partial portage 
at its source to the Ohio ought to be taken up as a pubHc 
measure, "as a means of becoming the channel of con- 
veyance of the extensive and valuable trade of a rising 

*Hening's "Stats, at Large," II, 510. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 89 

empire."* After the Revolution he urged action by 
the Legislature of Virginia in a letter to Governor Ben- 
jamin Harrison, and his interest in the work on the 
river was the keenest he manifested in the nitervenmg 
years between the termination of his miHtary ser\ace 
and his re-entry into public life in a civil capacity. 

In the latter part of March, 1786, Mason received 
word that two of the Potomac commissioners appomted 
by Maryland would soon be at Gunston Hall, on their 
way to Alexandria, and would go forward with him to 
that town, where a meeting of the commissioners from 
both States was to take place. This was the first inti- 
mation Mason had received of his appointment or of the 
meeting, t The other commissioners, having been m 
Richmond when the commission was created, were, of 
course, cognizant of their appointment, and Henderson, 
by some means or other, heard of the time and place of 
meeting; but neither Randolph nor Madison received 
any notification of the meeting, and they remained at 
home in ignorance that it had been called. The fault 
was not on the side of Maryland, for the Governor of the 
State had written to the Governor of Virginia proposing 
the time and place for the meeting of the joint commis- 
sion, and no objection having been made the Maryland 
commissioners presumed the arrangements were satis- 
factory, and set forth on their journey in full confidence 
that they would be joined by their Virginia colleagues. 
The representation from Maryland was complete, and 
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Thomas Stone and Samuel 
Chase of that State, with Henderson and Mason from 
Virginia, waited for- several days in Alexandria for 
Madison and Randolph, until IMason concluded that, 
like himself, they had not been notified. He decided, 
however, to proceed to business, as the Marylanders had 
travelled a considerable distance in bad weather, and 

♦See "Washington's Interest in the Potomac Company." Johns 
Hopkins University Studies. Third Series, 8i. 

t Mason's Letters to Madison, Dept. of State MSS. 



90 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

a failure of the purpose of their journey would be due 
to the carelessness of the Virginia officials. General 
Washington came to Alexandria while the commissioners 
were waiting, and showed ]\Iason, who saw it for the first 
time, a copy of the Virginia resolution of December 28, 
respecting the application to Pennsylvania. As this 
gave power to any two of the Virginia commissioners to 
act, Mason concluded the resolution of June 28, creating 
the commission, conferred the same power, neither he 
nor Henderson having a copy of the resolution. They 
also believed it covered regulations for Chesapeake Bay 
and the Pokomoke River, as the Maryland commission 
did.* The supposition was natural for the additional 
reason that in 1777 Virginia and Maryland had arranged 
for a joint meeting including in its scope the Chesapeake 
and Pokomoke, but the meeting never took place. f 
In reality the Virginia resolutions confined the negotia- 
tions to the Potomac and required at least three com- 
missioners to act. 

It would appear that General Washington conferred 
with the commissioners from the start, and for their 
own comfort and his convenience they moved from 
Alexandria to Mt. Vernon. The prospective extension 
of the navigation of the Potomac, in which he was con- 
cerned, and the regulations to govern the navigation, 
were closely allied subjects, and his counsel entered, to a 
greater or less extent, in the proceedings of the joint 
commission. At Mt. Vernon, therefore, on March 28, 
1785, the commissioners entered into a compact con- 
cerning the jurisdiction over the Rivers Potomac and 
Pokomoke and Chesapeake Bay and the navigation 
thereof. Freedom of navigation was granted by Vir- 
ginia to Maryland over Virginia waters, and by Mary- 
land to Virginia over Maryland waters. There was to 
be free trade between the States. Lighthouses, buoys, 
etc., on the Potomac and the Bay were to be maintained 

* Mason to Madison, August 9, 1785. Dept. of State MSS. 
t Scharf's " History of Maryland," II, 529. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 91 

at the expense of both States, Virginia paying five parts 
and Maryland three parts * The discussion and ar- 
rangement of these matters naturally led to broader 
subjects of concern to the States, such as the desirability 
of uniform export and import duties and regulations of 
commerce, as well as currency and rates of exchange, 
and a supplementary report on these points was agreed to. 
The Mt. Vernon compact came before the Maryland 
Legislature and was agreed to November 22, and a final 
clause was added proposing that resolutions should be 
sent to the Legislatures of Pennsylvania and Delaware, 
and that those States be requested to nominate com- 
missioners to meet commissioners from Maryland and 
Virginia, to agree upon unifonn trade regulations for 
the four States. Pennsylvania and Delaware actually 
accepted the invitation, and on Febmary 20, 1786, 
Maryland named her commissioners "to meet commis- 
sioners from the States of Pennsylvania and Delaware, 
for the purpose of considering and digesting the most 
proper measures for improving the inland navigation of 
the Susquehannah River, and the waters communicating 
with it, and for effecting a navigable communication 
between the Bays of Chesapeake and Delaware, and 
also to confer on any other subject which may tend to pro- 
mote the commerce and mutual convenience of the said 
States.''^ This action came too late, for Virginia had 
already passed resolutions of invitation to all the States. 
It was not a part of the programme of ^ladison and 
his party that a partial uniformity of trade regulations 
should be effected by agreement among groups of States. 
They wished the uniformity to prevail throughout the 
whole country, and to be under the control of the national 
Congress. It was to this power that the Virginia legis- 
lature was unalterably opposed, for it was jealous of 
the northern marine and believed that national naviga- 
tion laws would foster northern shipping interests at 

* Scharf's "History of Maryland," 11, 531- 
tld.,ll, s^%,etseq. 



92 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

the expense of southern export and import interests. 
Moreover, the Virginia Assembly furnished no exception 
to the general rule that no body of men willingly and 
deliberately lessens its own power and importance. 
The utmost concession that could be wrung from the 
reluctant legislators was a proposition to vest the de- 
sired power in Congress for not more than thirteen years ; 
but such a partial measure would not be worth urging 
upon the other States; and v/hen Madison perceived the 
hopelessness of expecting more he took up the proposi- 
tion passed by Maryland, November 22, and enlarged 
it into a request to all the States to appoint commis- 
sioners "to take into consideration the trade of the United 
States; to examine the relative situation and trade of 
said States; to consider how far a uniform system in 
their commercial regulations may be necessary to their 
common interest and permanent harmony; and to re- 
port to the several States such an act, relative to this 
great object, as, when unanimously ratified by them, 
will enable the United States in Congress effectually to 
provide for the same. " Such a convention, it was hoped, 
would recommend to the State Legislatures to do what 
the Virginia Legislature persisted in refusing to do. 

The members of the State government always sus- 
pected those who had served in the Continental Congress 
of leaning too much toward Federal power, and of a 
desire to deprive the State governments of their pre- 
rogatives. They were especially suspicious of Madison, 
the avowed champion of schemes to increase the re- 
sources of the continental establishment. He was fully 
aware, therefore, that if he introduced the amended 
Maryland recommendation it would be prejudiced from 
the start, and to avoid this he put it in the hands of 
John Tyler, a member of the House of Delegates who 
had never performed continental service, and to whom 
the suspicion of FederaHsm did not attach. Tyler in- 
troduced it and it lay unnoticed upon the table until 
January 21, 1786, the last day of the session, when it 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 93 

was substituted for the bill giving Congress power over 
navigation and commerce. It went through with a 
rush and without exciting much notice, the minority 
against it being insignificant.* Dr. Walter Jones, St. 
George Tucker, j\Ieriw^ether Smith, George Mason, David 
Ross, William Ronald, Edmund Randolph and Madison 
were appointed the Virginia delegates to the meeting; 
Ronald's name was dropped at his own request. Smith 
had been one of the few members opposing the measure, f 
Before it was adopted Madison described it in a letter 
to Washington, as the natural outcome of the ]\It. Vernon 
meeting, t and so it was, but it was an outcome entirely- 
unforeseen by the initiators of the Mt. Vernon meeting. 
To increase the power of Congress was Madison's greatest 
object at this time. His Potomac resolution of June 28, 
1784, had no such purpose, being meant, as appeared 
upon its face, merely to secure uniform navigation 
regulations with Maryland. When the Maryland Legis- 
lature proposed to include two other States in the ar- 
rangement Madison saw his chance and sprang the 
proposition to call in all the States. It was a secondary 
move, and he would have preferred an act directly giving 
Congress power to make commercial regulations. 

There were mighty chances against the proposition 
for the meeting producing any beneficial results, and 
Madison looked with despair upon the prospect. First, 
all the other States were asked to agree to send delegates 
to the meeting, and all the States hardly ever agreed 
to anything; second, if the meeting did take place it 
must agree upon a report to the States, and there was 
no reason to expect greater harmony in this assemblage 
than there was in the Continental Congress, where dis- 
cord reigned; third, if a plan should be agreed upon, 
under the terms of the call of the meeting every State 
must accept it before it could become effective, and it 

*" Writings of Madison " (Hunt), II, 218. 
tid., (Hunt), II, 223. 
JId., II, 198. 



94 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

seemed preposterous to expect such unanimity from 
such antagonistic elements. But affairs were rushing 
to a crisis, and it was clear that something must be done 
to save the Union from disintegration and America 
from disgrace. Far-seeing men began seriously to ap- 
prehend that soon the people who had won a glorious 
victory against Great Britain would fall back under the 
yoke of that or some other foreign power. The most dan- 
gerous and demoralizing inclinations of weak human na- 
ture were becoming more and more in the ascendancy in 
the State governments — a tendency to pass laws by which 
the fulfilment of contracts might be avoided, to stamp 
paper with figures and promises and call it money, to 
repudiate debts and avoid the obligations of honest men. 
"I saw enough," wrote Madison to Jefferson, March i8, 
1786, "during the late Assembly of the influence of the 
desperate circumstances of individuals on their public 
conduct, to admonish me of the possibility of finding in 
the council of some one of the States fit instruments of 
foreign machinations."* 

To avert the impending calamity would be more diffi- 
cult in the future, Kentucky was already asking for 
admission as a State, and there would be other Western 
States to follow and "proportionally impede measures 
which required unanimity," as Madison feared. 



♦"Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 229-230. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE ANNAPOLIS CONVENTION 

The resolution proposing the convention to consider 
commercial arrangements was almost the last act of the 
session of the \^irginia Assembly terminating January 2 1 , 
1786. A quorum of the Virginia deputies elected to 
the Convention met in Richmond after Madison had left 
and proposed Annapohs as the place for the meeting 
and the first Monday in September for the date. The 
General Assembly when it adjourned had been in session 
ninety-seven days, and with the exception of the first 
seven days Madison's attendance had been uninter- 
rupted. Indeed, his capacity for work was inexhausti- 
ble, and his labours were never laid aside for pleasure. 

The Legislature transacted much business, yet little 
of it gave satisfaction to the friends of good government. 
The "itch for paper money," as Madison characterized 
it, had been only temporarily allayed ; but he took pride 
in the fact that "the ambitious hope of making laws for 
the human mind" had been "extinguished forever." 
The collection of the tax for the year had been post- 
poned, and it was agreed that when it came to be col- 
lected tobacco might be accepted in payment instead 
of specie. For this method of payment Madison voted, 
although he disapproved of it ; but he hoped, by allowing 
thus much to the soft money party, to prevent them 
from pressing the more dangerous measures they had 
introduced. The State's quota of $512,000 to the Federal 
Treasury was ordered to be paid for the year 1786 before 
May, although the postponement of the tax collections 
made it certain that there would not be a penny in the 
treasury with w^hich to make the payment. The State 

95 



96 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

had gained some reputation by paying its quota the year 
before, but Madison said, "our conduct thic (year) must 
stamp us with ignominy."* Yet the Virginia Legisla- 
ture was no worse than other State Legislatures and 
better than some. Madison freely expressed his con- 
tempt for its proceedings and tendencies. No session, 
he declared the day it adjourned, deserved so little 
applause. There w^as, he said later, (March 19,) "both 
ignorance and iniquity to combat," and the best way 
was "to defeat the designs of the latter by humoring 
the prejudices of the former, "f 

The session being ended Madison went back to Orange 
and found relief from political activity in other studies. 
Lesiure, in the sense of idleness, he never knew, for his 
hours were always full of activity, and time was never a 
weight on his hands. His recreation was merely to 
change the field of his mental work. There was awaiting 
him at home "a literary cargo," as he called it, sent by 
Jefferson, and he plunged into the boxes of books with 
the keen ardour of the true lover of knowledge for its own 
sake. Among the volumes were a number of Buffon's 
"Histoire Naturelle Generale et Particuliere, " wdiich he 
had not thus far had time to examine, and he now read 
them with the care of one to whom natural history was 
no new study, for he was familiar with the animal life 
of his State. He even proposed to collect the skins of 
wild animals in Virginia and have them stuffed, and 
hoped to send some animals alive to Paris for European 
naturalists to study. He caged a live oppossum with 
seven of her young, but they died before he had a chance 
to make scientific observations of them. He disputed 
Jefferson's statement in his "Notes on Virginia," in 
which Bufton agreed, that the fallow and roe deer of 
Europe were also natives of America, and declared, as the 
result of inquiry from Western travellers, that the com- 
mon deer seen in Virginia was the only one indigenous 

* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), U, 2ig, et seq. 
tTo Monroe, Id., II, 233. 



LIFE OF JAMES :\IADISON 97 

to this countr\% being found in the Western woods and 
as far south as New Orleans. He secured a wounded 
monax or woodchuck, noted its temperature, and after 
its death recorded its measurements in comparison with 
the European marmot, as described by Buffon, and con- 
cluded they were the same animal. He treated a mole 
in the same way, and when a weasel fell into his hands 
he compiled an elaborate table of its measurements, 
even to the exact size of the conque of the ear and the 
nails of each foot, paralleling the figures with the similar 
measurements in BuiTon of the belette and ermine.* 
In these researches he was, of course, an amateur, and 
he did not pretend to be more. 

He took a like interest in inventions, saw the 
first phosphoric matches in 1785 with much curiosity, 
and gave two guineas for a newly invented lamp. 
He commissioned Jefferson to buy him a curious pocket 
compass, not much larger than a watch, such as he had 
recently seen. He hoped to find it useful in case of a 
pedestrian tour through the Western woods, and for 
the same purpose desired a pocket telescope to inspect 
objects which he could not approach. He suggested 
the making of a walking stick with a microscope and 
scale of measurement set in the handle. f In later life 
he drew the designs of a chair with a writing desk at- 
tached to the arm. James Rumsey, who in 1784 in- 
vented a boat to be propelled by a stream of water 
ejected by steam power from the stern, was engaged 
as one of the engineers by the Potomac Company when 
Madison was active in its affairs, t and Madison knew of 
his experiments, and later he knew John Fitch, who in 
1788 begged piteously for his assistance to secure gov- 
ernment patronage of his efforts to build a steamboat. § 
He encouraged both Rumsey and Fitch without, how- 

* "Writing:s of Madison" (Hunt), II, 239, et seq. 
t Id., II, 134, et scq. 

% Records of Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Co. MSS, 
§Dept. of State MSS. 



98 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

ever, piercing the future which their discoveries were 
destined to revolutionize. 

It w^as efforts such as these, to assist the progress of 
the human race, that principally concerned Madison, 
rather than the consummated beauties of nature, but 
appreciation of the picturesque was not entirely lacking 
in him. He fed upon splendid scenery from infancy, 
for the prospect from the little porch, which was all the 
house in Orange then boasted, was one of surpassing 
beauty, embracing the mighty range of the Blue Ridge 
lying across the whole horizon, while around him the 
lesser mountains and spreading valleys offered a succes- 
sion of beautiful prospects. In all of picturesque Vir- 
ginia there is no part more beautiful than that in which 
the Madisons lived. When Madison left home in the 
early summer of 1786 to go to New York, instead of 
taking the usual and more direct route through Fredericks- 
burg and the Northern Neck, he crossed the mountains 
and went to Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley, to 
see his relations, and by Harper's Ferry to Lancaster, 
Pa., and he then saw Harper's Ferry for the first time. 
The day was unfavourable for the clouds hung low, but 
he climbed the mountain to see the view, and although 
he got drenched in a thunder storm, he was able to form 
some idea of the panorama that lay beneath him.* 
It was not, however, as an artist that he looked at it; 
his eye dwelt rather upon the enrichment of the valley 
by the crops in full maturity, and at the rapids of the 
Potomac he was principally observant of the progress 
of the work undertaken by the Potomac Company in 
opening the bed of the river to make navigation feasible. 

The works of men and men in their relations to one 
another were the great objects of his thoughts, and, of 
course, the aboriginal Americans came in for their share. 
He was familiar with the different tribes and admired 
the eloquence of the chiefs, but of actual contact with the 
Indians he had little, not being a pioneer and not being 

* "Writings of Madison," (Hunt), II, 257. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 99 

of an adventurous spirit. They were a reality to him, 
however, for his great aunt's husband, Jacob Hite, was 
killed by them in 1776,* and he kept in touch with his 
friends in Kentucky, to whom Indian warfare was a 
dreadful fact. In the autumn of 1784, when he was 
travelling to enlarge his knowledge of the cotmtry, at 
Baltimore he fell in with the Marquis Lafayette, who 
was coming from a visit at Mount Vernon, and accepted 
the Marquis's invitation to accompany him to a treaty, 
as Indian negotiations were called, with the Oneidas 
at Fort Schuyler, near Albany. On the journey he 
formed an intimacy with the charming Frenchman and 
took the measure of his ability and character, "With 
great natural frankness of temper," he wrote, "he 
unites much address and very considerable talents. In 
his politics he says his three hobby-horses are the alliance 
between France and the U. S., the union of the latter 
and the manumission of the slaves. The two former 
are the dearer to him, as they are connected with his 
personal glory. The last does him real honour, as it is 
a proof of his humanity. In a word, I take him to be as 
amiable a man as can be imagined and as sincere an 
American as any Frenchman can be; one whose past 
services gratitude obliges us to acknowledge and whose 
future friendship prudence requires us to cultivate." 
He intimated, too, that when the Marquis had performed 
a meritorious act he liked it to be widely known. As 
he had influence with the French Government Madison 
improved the opportunity to fill him full of the Virginia 
position on the subject of the navigation of the Mississippi 
and the unreasonable attitude of Spain. f It was shortly 
after this journey that Washington mentioned to Madi- 
son the desire of Catharine of Russia to compare the 
dialects of the natives of her most northeastern posses- 
sions with those of the American Indians, with a view 
to throwing some light, perhaps, upon the vexed question 

* Records of the Hite family. 

t "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 85. See ante p. 60. 



loo LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

of the original habitat of the American race. Madison 
fell in with the idea and procured from an Indian student 
a vocabulary of the Choctaw and Cherokee dialects 
which he gave Washington to send to Russia.* 

Of more interest than these investigations were his 
reflections on the pressure of population upon the means 
of subsistence in a letter to Jefferson written June 19, 
1786, twelve years before Malthus's first "Essay on the 
Principle of Population" was published. Jefferson de- 
scribed to him a walk he took at Fontainebleau in the 
autumn of 1785, when he fell in with a peasant woman 
who told him she received, when she was employed, 8 
sous a day for wages, which her rent so completely 
absorbed that she and her family were often without 
bread. Contrasting her, as a representative of the most 
numerous class in the community, with the few who 
were proprietors of large estates and lived in luxury, 
Jefferson asked himself why so many should be obliged 
to beg in a country where there was such a large amount 
of land kept idle for the pleasure of hunting game. It 
seemed to him a violation of natural right, as the earth 
was given as a common stock for man to live upon. The 
letter was in Jefferson's most philanthropic vein, painting 
the same pathetic picture of social injustice which has 
moved the hearts of observing men since the world 
began. Leading into the theory which is now associated 
with the name of Henry George, Jefferson said it was 
too soon to say that every man in America who could 
find uncultivated land should be at liberty to cultivate 
it, paying a moderate rent, but it was not too soon to 
provide by every possible means that as few people as 
possible should be without a little portion of land, as 
the small landholders were the best part of a popula- 
tion. To these observations Madison replied that the 
fact that no such poverty was found in America as ex- 
isted in Europe was due chiefly to the sparseness of our 
population. A certain degree of misery seemed in- 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), II, 320. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON loi 

separable from density of population, however much 
the laws might favour division of property. Even if 
the lands used by the idle rich in Europe were parcelled 
out among the poor would there not still remain a large 
number of the latter unrelieved ? No problem in political 
economy seemed to him more puzzling than that of 
the proper distribution of the inhabitants of a fully 
peopled country. Let the lands be apportioned among 
them ever so wisely and cultivated ever so carefully, 
there must yet be a surplus of people beyond those en- 
gaged in agricultural and other productive employments, 
and to reduce this class was the most necessary reform. 
A more equal division of property produced a greater 
simplicity in living and a less consumption of superflu- 
ities. Here he broke off, remarking that he must re- 
member that he was writing a letter and not a disserta- 
tion.* Later in life he began an essay on the "Symmetry 
of Nature" which dealt with the same subject. The 
opening sentence was: "The planetary system, the 
greatest portion of the universe as yet brought under 
human observation, is regulated by fixed laws, and 
presents most demonstrably, a scene of order and pro- 
portion. " By analogy he concluded that the whole 
universe, if it were understood, would exhibit proofs of 
the same arrangement. In animal life each species has 
a general relation to the other. The faculty of multi- 
plication seemed to be indefinite, yet in all but the human 
species nature has established a law of proportion setting 
bounds to the reproductive faculty. Among animals 
this is maintained by the limited amoimt of vegetable 
subsistence provided and by depredations of carnivorous 
beasts upon herbivorous; among carnivorous by the 
limited number of herbivorous, by their depredations 
upon one another, and of man upon the whole. Man 
has certain peculiar characteristics, being a prey to no 
other animal and able to multiply the natural supplies 
of food. What then is to prevent him from multiply- 

* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 246, et seq. 



I02 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

ing to an indefinite extent ? Would natvire permit her 
favourite offspring to destroy the whole system of pro- 
portion ? If this had been the design, why should it not 
have been accomplished long ago? Why should there 
be on earth anything more than human policy spared 
for its own use? The history of the human race could 
be traced for several thousand years, yet there was no 
evidence that the aggregate population had undergone 
any material increase, nor was there proof that any 
species of animal or plant was extinct, although the 
bones of mammoth animals found recently on the Ohio 
came near to being evidence against this proposition. 
His conclusion was that when the secret laws of nature 
should be more fully understood it would be found that 
there was a law of proportion in human life as in 
plant and animal life.* 

In the intervals of his other work he continued his 
study of law, but he now declared he had abandoned his 
desire of practising it as a profession. Another way of 
securing a competence, as he hoped, was suggested to 
him by Monroe, and the two statesmen fell in with the 
tide and became in an innocent way speculators in land. 
Apparently they made several ventures, but the chief 
one was in certain wild lands in the Mohawk region, 
near the head waters of the Hudson River. They in- 
spected the lands and found them as rich as the soil of 
Kentucky. Consulting General Washington, who was 
regarded as an expert, he said the lands were good, and 
intimated that if he had money to spare and was dis- 
posed to buy land he would buy here. So Monroe and 
]\Iadison bought a tract of about i,ooo acres for one 
dollar and a half an acre, and confidently expected to 
grow rich, because land a little lower down the river 
and inhabited sold for eight or ten pounds an acre. But 
the preliminary payments Madison was forced to ask 
Monroe to meet alone, for he had no ready money. So 
certain were the two speculators of making a handsome 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON lo 



J 



profit that they determined upon a second and larger 
purchase in the same locality and to associate with them 
in the scheme their friend Jefferson, not only because 
they wished to raise the money they needed upon his 
credit, but because they wanted him to share in their 
prospective good fortune. There was no reason, Madi- 
son wrote Jefferson, why Jefferson should not avail 
himself of this opportunity to improve his condition. 
They proposed to him, therefore, to lend his credit in his 
private capacity to raise between 4,000 and 5,000 louis, 
Monroe and ]\Iadison being sureties, at an interest of 
six per cent, per annum. One reason for the cheapness 
of the land, Madison explained, was the scarcity of specie, 
and there would soon be such a fall in the rate of exchange 
that money drawn by bills from Europe now and repaid 
in a few years would probably sa\-e one year's interest 
at least.* Jefferson did not find it feasible to join in 
the enterprise, and so far as Madison's share in it went 
it was abandoned. It is strange that he should have 
gone as far as he did, for his pecuniary affairs were in a 
most unsatisfactory state, a condition which appears 
to have been habitual with him. He had, as we 
have seen, a farm of his own.f but he had the use of 
a part of the income from his father's farm besides, and 
he assisted in the business management of the whole 
estate. In the disordered financial condition of the 
coimtry payments were irregular and prices fluctuated 
beyond calculation, and the planters were generally 
distressed in their circimistances, Madison being no 
worse off than most of his neighbours. He wrote to his 
brother Ambrose, September 8, 1786, that he could not 
obtain the money due for the tobacco he had sold and 
that Ambrose must continue to pray their creditors, t 
October 5, 1786, he wrote to Monroe declining further 
speculations for the present, and thanking him for his 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), II, 266. 

t Ante, p 76. 

X "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 269. 



I04 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

"very friendly procrastinations of the repayment which 
ought long ago to have been made, "* Part of the money 
was paid in December. 

The great object of Madison's journey north in the 
summer of 1786 was not, however, to sell tobacco or look 
for cheap lands which would rise in value, but to sound 
the leading men at New York, where Congress was sitting, 
and at Philadelphia, which was the centre of the conti- 
nent, on the subject of the Annapolis meeting. f He 
found many men in favour of making it a means of 
calling a second convention for amending the Articles 
of Confederation, but he himself did not believe this was 
possible. In fact, he almost despaired of the convention 
accomplishing anything, and he was certain that Vir- 
ginia would take no part in measures to strengthen the 
Federal power, if the Federal Congress agreed to a treaty 
with Spain shutting up the Mississippi, as it then seemed 
probable would be done. 

TravelHng with one servant Madison arrived in the 
Maryland town September 5, and went to the tavern 
kept by George Mann, where he remained eleven days. 
How he lived is shown by the itemized account of his 
landlord for ;^i4 7s. 2d. for board and lodging for himself 
and servant and stabling for his two horses. He always 
breakfasted at Mr. Mann's, but was charged with dinner 
for six days only, having on the other days, it is pre- 
sumed, dined abroad wdth his friends. He drank wine, 
punch or porter each day, and his servant had grog. 
His landlord called him "Colonel" Madison, but this 
was hardly more than a title of respect in those days, and 
was frequently applied to ]\Iadison as he grew older. J 

When he reached AnnapoHs he foimd only two com- 
missioners present. By September 11, Delaware, New 
Jersey, Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania were 
represented. Although the Maryland Legislature had 

* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 274. 

t Rives, II, 115. 

X Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 105 

taken the action which led to the calling of the meeting, 
it sent no delegates. Daniel Carroll explained to 
Madison in March that the Assembly was afraid the 
convention, if it acted, would try to weaken the powers 
of Congress, where the right to make commercial regu- 
lations really belonged.* North Carolina sent no dele- 
gates, because there had been no session of the Legisla- 
ture since the invitation to the meeting had been re- 
ceived. South Carolina sent none, because she had re- 
cently instructed her delegates in Congress to vote for 
national regulation of commerce for fifteen years, and 
this seemed to be sufficient to show sympathy with the 
objects of the meeting. Connecticut took no action, 
having a prejudice against conventions and being in a 
spiteful mood, because of tariff wars with neighbouring 
States. Nobody knew what Georgia had done, the State 
being remote from the scene, but in reahty she had 
done nothing. New Hampshire, Rhode Island and 
Massachusetts had each selected delegates, but they did 
not deem it worth while to attend. f The delegates 
who were present and constituted the famous Annapolis 
Convention were not for the most part men of great 
consequence. Tench Coxe was there from Pennsyl- 
vania, a pigmy beside the great men of his State. He 
was afterwards in the Treasury Department and was 
a political economist of some ability ; but as a public man 
he was quarrelsome, uncertain and petty, and an im- 
portunate office-seeker, t Benson was Hamilton's ob- 
scure colleague from New York. New Jersey sent 
Abraham Clark, W. C. Houstoim and James Schureman, 
but Delaware had two strong men in George Read and 
John Dickinson, and Virginia had the strongest delega- 
tion present in ]\Iadison, Edmund Randolph and St. 
George Tucker. Meriwether Smith, David Ross and 
George ^lason, who had also been elected delegates, did 

* Dept. of State MSS. 

t "Writings of Madison," (Hunt) II, 262. 

J Dept. of State MSS. Applications for office. 



io6 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

not attend. Mason would have been an acquisition 
and was earnestly urged to go, but he was kept at home 
by an attack of the gout. The veteran of the meeting 
was John Dickinson. He had served in the protesting 
Congresses of 1765 and 1774, and in the Revolutionary 
Congress of 1776, where he wrote the Articles of Con- 
federation, and in subsequent Congresses. He was 
elected to be president of the Convention, but it was 
extremely doubtful whether there would be anything 
for him to preside over, the representation was so slim. 
New Jersey was the only State whose delegates were 
empowered to do more than make recommendations for 
commercial regulations, and in their commission was 
included recommendations for strengthening the Federal 
Government. Under the leadership of Hamilton the 
Convention decided to disregard its ostensible object, 
and merely to issue an address calling for another 
convention of delegates from all the States on a broader 
scale. His experience in New York had been similar to 
Madison's in Virginia. He had advocated the lodging 
of the power to make commercial regulations in Con- 
gress, and when he saw that the opposition in the Legis- 
lature of his State could not be overcome he had thrown 
his weight in favour of the Virginia proposition for the 
conference at Annapolis. The address he offered the 
conference was the only thing it considered, and its 
unanimous adoption was the only result of its three days' 
session. The too radical expressions in the draft of the 
address were toned down at Randolph's insistence. 
Madison advised Hamilton's acquiescence by saying: 
"You had better yield to this man, for otherwise all 
Virginia will be against you,"* Randolph's power in 
the State then being at its zenith. The address set 
forth the critical situation of affairs and proposed that 
the States which the delegates represented "should 
concur and use their endeavours to procure the con- 
currence of the other States, in the appointment of com- 

* Morse's " Hamilton," I. 167. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 107 

rnissioners to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday 
in May next, to take into consideration the situation of 
the United States; to devise such further provisions as 
shall appear necessary to render the Constitution of the 
Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the 
Union; and to report such an act for that purpose to 
the United States in Congress assembled as, when agreed 
to by them and afterwards confirmed by the Legislatures 
of every State, will effectually provide for the same."* 
Having launched this address the Annapolis Con- 
vention adjourned and the members dispersed. Madi- 
son had proposed it with small hopes that it would ac- 
complish anything, and Hamilton had gone to it without 
enthusiastic expectations. It failed signally of the 
purpose for which it was called, and out of that failure 
came an unauthorized proposition which brought 
about the Convention which framed the Constitution of 
the United States, but that Convention had really been 
in the mouths of men for some years. 



* "Hamilton's Works" (Lodge), I, 319. 



CHAPTER XII 

PREPARING FOR THE GREAT CONVENTION 

To FIND the originator of the project of holding a 
convention of delegates from all the States to evolve a 
remedy for the obvious defects of the Government 
under the Articles of Confederation would be a fruitless 
search. That existing conditions could not long con- 
tinue was self-evident, and many men must have formu- 
lated plans for a change, the most natural first step 
towards which would be a conference of all the parties 
in interest. It is of small consequence, therefore, who 
first gave expression to a thought which must have been 
so common. According to Madison, the first person to 
print the suggestion of a convention was Pelatiah Web- 
ster, "an able but not conspicuous citizen," in a pam- 
phlet published in l\Iay, 1781 ;* but Alexander Hamilton 
made the same suggestion in a private letter to James 
Duane, September 3, lyScf The Legislature of New 
York passed resolutions favouring the plan in 1782 
and that of Massachusetts in 1785. In 1784 the Presi- 
dent of Congress, Richard Henry Lee, wrote Madison 
that it was common talk among the members.! Madi- 
son replied December 25, 1784, that he put no confidence 
in the continuance of the Union under the present sys- 
tem, and hoped the convention proposition would not 
be prejudiced by an admission that Virginia did not 
favour it, although he feared such was the case.§ March 
25, 1786, Wilham Grayson, delegate from Virginia, 

* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 402. 
t "Hamilton's Works" (Lodge), I, 203. 
X Dept. of State MSS. 
§ "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 100. 

108 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 109 

wrote that many members of the Congress favoured a 
convention to revise the Articles of Confederation * 

The initiative could not, however, be expected to 
come from the Congress itself. The days of glory of 
that extraordinary, body were over, and it was now 
composed of shifting elements — delegates who came 
and went and took an interest only in those matters 
that immediately concerned their respective States. 
The tone had lowered and the more eminent men of the 
country did not seek service in a helpless, disintegrating 
body. The contrast between the Congress of 1783, 
when Madison's service terminated, and that of 1786, 
when the Annapolis meeting took place, was signifi- 
cant. In 1783 Wilson of Pennsylvania, Charles Car- 
roll of Mar^dand, Henry Lee of Virginia, Gerry and 
Osgood of Massachusetts, Duane of New York, and 
Boudinot of New Jersey, were his associates ; now, there 
were almost no members of note except Richard Henry 
Lee, Gorham of ]\Iassachusetts and Charles Pinckney 
of South Carolina. Congress preferred, Madison said, 
to keep the ship of State afloat "by standing constantly 
at the pump, not by stopping the leaks which have 
endangered her. "t 

It was Alexander Hamilton who saw in the Annapolis 
meeting a possible means of stopping the leaks, and 
calling the convention which was in the minds of so 
many men. The immediate argument was that the 
Annapolis meeting was for the purpose of considering 
regulations of trade, but these involved indirectly all 
other Government regulations, and could not be re- 
adjusted unless the other parts of the Government were 
also readjusted. 

The interval between the adjournment at Annapolis 
and the meeting at Philadelphia was spent in arousing 
pubhc opinion to the necessities of the occasion, and 
all the States appointed delegates except Rhode Island. 

* Dept. of State MSS. 

t "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II. 



no LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

That State had refused assent to the proposed revenue 
system, had taxed her neighbours who were obHged to 
use her convenient ports, and was having a debauch 
of paper money and repudiation of debts. " Being 
conscious of the wickedness of the measures they are 
pursuing they are afraid of everything that may become 
a control on them," Madison wrote his father, April i, 
1787.* So the Constitution was made without Rhode 
Island's help. 

Edmund Randolph, wdio, as Governor of Virginia, 
was by consent of his colleagues the head of the Virginia 
delegation to the convention, wrote^to Madison, March 27, 
1787, proposing that a scheme of government be en- 
grafted upon the Articles of Confederation, and that 
the Virginia delegates draw up some general proposi- 
tions to be submitted to the Convention. Madison 
replied April 8 outlining a plan; but so far as the Ar- 
ticles of Confederation were concerned he said his ideas 
of a reform struck too deeply and involved too syste- 
matic a change to include their retention.! The plan 
he outlined to Randolph he had previously (March 19)! 
set forth in a letter to Jefferson, and subsequently (April 
i6)§ he laid it before Washington. He said he con- 
ceived that the individual independence of the States 
"was utterly irreconcilable with their aggregate sov- 
ereignty," but that "a consolidation of the whole into 
one simple republic would be as inexpedient as it was un- 
attainable. " The main points which he thought required 
attention were a change in national representation, 
giving proportional power to the larger States; that 
the National Government should be armed with "posi- 
tive and complete authority in all cases requiring uni- 
formity, " such as the regulation of trade, including 
the right of taxing both exports and imports, "the 

* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 335. 
tid.. II, 337. 
Jld., II, 328. 
§Id., II, 344. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON iii 

fixing the terms and forms of naturalization, &c., &c."; 
that the National Government should have a right of 
negative, such as the King of England had enjoyed 
before the Revolution, on all State legislation; that 
there should be a supreme judiciary having jurisdiction 
"in all cases to which foreigners or inhabitants of other 
States may be parties," and in admiralty cases; that 
the appointment of National officers should vest in the 
National Government; that it should have control of 
the militia; that there should be two legislative cham- 
bers, one chosen by the people or the Legislatures, the 
other holding for a longer term, the members to go out 
by rotation, so as always to leave a large majority of old 
members; that there should be a council to revise all 
laws passed ; that there should be a National Executive ; 
that domestic tranquillity should be guaranteed to the 
States; that the National Government should have the 
right of coercion over the States ; and that the new Con- 
stitution should be ratified by the people of the States, 
not by the Legislatures. 

Early in 1785 (January 6) George Muter of Kentucky 
wrote to Madison propounding some questions that 
Caleb Wallace, Madison's old college mate at Princeton, 
had suggested on the subject of a Constitution for Ken- 
tucky,* and Atigust 23, 1785,! Madison replied setting 
forth his ideas on the subject of what a State Constitu- 
tion should be. He thought the Legislature ought 
to include a Senate, to give wisdom and steadiness to 
legislation. The lower House ought to be expressly 
restrained from meddling with religion, aboHshing juries, 
taking away the right of habeas corpus, forcing a citi- 
zen to give evidence against himself, controlling the 
press, enacting retroactive laws, at least in criminal 
cases, abridging the right of suffrage, taking private 
property for public use without paying for it, licensing 
the importation of slaves, etc. He had formed no final 

* Dept. of State MSS. 

t "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, i66. 



112 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

opinion whether the Executive should be elected by 
the Legislature or the people or should be one man 
with a council, or a council simply with a president 
primus inter pares. The judges should hold during 
good behaviour, and their salaries should not be changed. 
The chief courts only ought to be named, giving the 
Legislature power to institute the others. Impeach- 
ment proceedings he would have tried before the Senate, 
the Executive and the judiciary. As for the right of 
suffrage, to confine it to landholders would exclude 
too many citizens; to extend it to all citizens without 
regard to property, or even to all who possessed a pit- 
tance, might throw the power into hands that would 
abuse it. A good middle course might be foimd in broad 
qualifications for electors to the popular branch of the 
Legislature and a narrower suffrage for the Senate. 
This might offend the sense of equit}^ but he saw no 
reason why rights of property which bore the chief 
burden of government and were so much the object of 
legislation should not be respected as well as personal 
rights. For the more numerous chamber he supposed 
annual elections would be insisted upon, but many 
good statesmen favoured triennial. For the Senate 
four or five years might be the period. It seemed un- 
necessary to prohibit an indefinite re-eligibility. With 
regard to the Executive, if the elections were frequent 
and by the people there could be no objection to re- 
elegibility. If they were infrequent there should be a 
temporary or perpetual incapacitation of re-elegibility 
to the chief magistracy. This letter in conjunction 
with those to Washington, Jeft'erson and Randolph 
may be taken as fairly representing Madison's notions 
of what a constitution should be before the Federal 
Convention met. 

He went into that body armed with a practical 
knowledge of the needs of the country gained from 
as great experience in its government as any mem- 
ber possessed; but in theoretical knowledge of govern- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 113 

ment he surpassed all his associates. He fully realized 
the tremendous issues trembling in the balance, and he 
prepared for the convention completely. After his 
election as a delegate he arranged his notes carefully. 
They were the result of profound study begun twenty 
years before at Princeton and continued unremittingly. 
He was an omnivorous reader of everything relating 
to government, and the limited library resources of 
his neighbourhood were substantially increased by his 
acquisitions from Paris. His erudition covered the 
whole field of experience of mankind in government, 
so far as it was applicable to conditions in America. 
He prepared before he went to Philadelphia several 
memoranda to assist him in the debates as they might 
arise. One was on the various confederacies of the 
world, Lycian, Achaean and Amphyctionic among the 
ancients, and Bclgic, Helvetic and Germanic among the 
modems.'*^ The Lycian Confederacy was an illustration 
of value, because the members voted in proportion to 
their pecuniary contributions to the whole government. 
The Amphyctionic League offered an illustration of a 
general government which had power to declare war 
and coerce the cities which were parties to the confed- 
eracy. The Achaean Confederacy was an example of 
perfect equality among its members, each city sending 
the same number of deputies to the Senate. The Federal 
power could make war, send and receive ambassadors, 
etc. The Helvetic Confederacy showed a general diet 
of united cantons, two deputies from each, with deci- 
sions made by a plurality of votes. The particular 
cantons had their particular diets for their own affairs, 
and were really independent commonwealths, bound 
together by a common instrument of government. In 
the Belgic Confederacy, on the other hand, there was an 
unlimited number of deputies to the central law-making 
body, but each province had only a single vote. The 
deputies held office for different periods of time, some 

* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 369. 



114 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

for six years, some for three, and some for one 3^ear. 
It was a perpetual union for common defence, and the 
federal power could levy import and export duties, 
receive and send ambassadors, and attend to all foreign 
affairs, the provinces reserving sovereignty within their 
respective borders, coining money of equal standard, 
and contributing each a quota to the treasury of the Con- 
federacy. The Germanic Confederacy was interesting, be- 
cause it had three legislative colleges — the electors, the 
provinces and the imperial cities. The chief authorities 
upon which this memorandum was based were Monte- 
squieu's U Esprit des Lois (i 784), Ubbo Emmius, the Dutch 
historian, (in Latin), the Code d V Humanite oil Legislation, 
by Felice, in thirteen volumes, (1778), the Encyclopcodia 
of Political Economy, Plutarch's works, the Encyclopedic 
pubHshed under the direction of Diderot and d'Alem- 
bert, John Potter's Archccologia GrcBca, two volumes, 
(Oxford, 1688-9), Demosthenes, Grotius' De Jure Belli 
et Pads, Raleigh's History of the World, Gillies' History 
of Greece, Polybe's General History (probably the Paris 
edition of 1609), Stanyan's Switzerland, William Coxe's 
Voyages, Dictionnaire de Suisse, Sir William Temple's 
Remarks on the United Provinces (1674), Gabriel Bonnot 
de Mably (i 709-1 785), and several others. 

A more useful paper than the one on foreign con- 
federacies was an indictment he prepared against the 
existing Government, entitled "Vices of the Political 
System of the United States."* 

The counts were: The failure of the States to 
comply with Federal requisitions, resulting naturally 
from the number and independent authority of the 
States; the encroachments of State upon Federal au- 
thority, as instanced in Georgia's treaties with the In- 
dians, the unauthorized compacts between Virginia 
and Maryland, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and 
the raising of troops by Massachusetts; the violations 
of the laws of nations and of treaties, the treaty of peace 

* " Writings of Madison " (Hunt), II, 361. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 115 

and those with France and Holland all having been 
disregarded; the trespasses of one State upon the rights 
of another, illustrated in Virginia's laws restricting 
foreign vessels to certain ports, the Maryland and New 
York laws restricting their ports to vessels belonging 
to their own citizens, the issues of paper money and 
commercial regulations; the want of concert in matters 
of common concern, as shown in the lack of uniformity 
of naturalization laws, diverse laws on the subject of 
canals, etc. ; the absence of any guarantee to the States 
of protection against internal ^'iolence, making it possi- 
ble that a military minority might at any time oppress 
a majority of the people; the want of sanction by the 
Federal power to the laws passed by the States, and 
inability to coerce recalcitrant States; the difference 
in the fomi of ratification of the Articles of Confederation 
by the different States, some having them as a part of 
their Constitutions and others as having been sanctioned 
only by the Legislatures, thus making them easy of 
evasion; the multiplicity of laws, causing a useless and 
dangerous "luxuriancy of legislation;" their constant 
changing, causing chronic instability, and the incurable 
injustice of many of these laws. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE GREAT CONVENTION. I. 

The proceedings of the Convention were ordered to 
be kept secret, so that the members might dehberate 
uninfluenced by outside applause or criticism, and the 
people were not permitted to take part in shaping the 
Convention's work. Of that work Madison imposed 
upon himself the task of being the reporter. His object, 
as he stated many years afterwards, was to preserve 
"the history of a Constitution on which would be staked 
the happiness of a people great even in its infancy, and 
possibly the cause of liberty throughout the world." 
He chose a seat in front of the presiding officer, with 
the members to the right and left of him, where he 
could hear all that was said, and he took down each 
speech on the spot, using abbreviations and a few arbi- 
trary characters of his own. He wrote out his notes 
each day at his lodgings, being aided in his task by a 
knowledge of the style of most of the speakers, whom 
he had heard speak in the Congress. Franklin's speeches 
were nearly all written, and his colleague, Wilson, read 
them, Franklin himself being too feeble to stand the 
fatigue of delivering them himself. They were handed to 
Madison after delivery and copied by him. When he 
was writing out Hamilton's chief speech the latter 
happened to enter his room and reading it pronounced 
it to be correct. Gouvemeur Morris saw Madison's 
report of one of his speeches and made no changes in it. 
Not a single day of the sittings of the Convention did 
Madison miss, and his report was as complete as one 
man could make it.* It is a remarkable example of 

* "Writings of Madison" (Hunt), II, 391. 

116 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 117 

good reporting and of prolonged concentration upon a 
laborious task. 

The Convention determined at the outset to go beyond 
the purpose for which it was called. The Annapolis 
meeting proposed that this purpose should be to render 
the Government "adequate to the exigencies of the 
Union," and that the conclusions reached should be 
reported to Congress and become operative when agreed 
to by the Legislatures of all the States. But when 
Congress considered the xVnnapolis programme, it modi- 
fied it and appointed -May 2 as a day for a meeting of 
delegates from the several States, to revise the Articles 
of Confederation and recommend to Congress and the 
State Leigslatures such provisions as would, when 
agreed to by the States, "render the Federal Constitu- 
tion adequate to the exigencies of Government and the 
preservation of the Union."* 

With "a manly confidence in their country," as 
Madison tenned it, the members of the Convention 
exceeded their commission and wiped the Articles of 
Confederation out of existence,- substituting for them a 
Constitution which was not to be submitted to the 
State Legislatures at all, but was to go into effect when 
ratified by the people of nine States. They trusted to 
public opinion to support them, being encouraged to do 
so by recalling the alacrity with which Virginia's propo- 
sition for a meeting to consider better trade regulations 
had been accepted, and how the delegates to the conse- 
quent meeting had gone a step further and recom- 
mended a general convention, to which all the States but 
one had sent delegates.! 

It was generally agreed that the most radical defect 
in the Articles of Confederation lay in the power of the 
States to comply with or disregard, as they saw fit, the 
recommendations of Congress, and that the most press- 
ing duty before the Convention was to find a remedy 

* Journals of Congress (Ed. 1800) XII, 14. 
^ t Federalist, No. XL. 



ii8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

for this evil * To do so none of the leaders of the Con- 
vention wished to erect a complete democracy. The 
inclinations of a few members lay in that direction, 
but they exerted little influence, for the democratic 
sentiment of the country was opposed to holding the 
Convention, and had not sought to send its champions 
as delegates. The assemblage was looked upon from 
the beginning as one of federahsts. 

In planning the National Congress, therefore, it was 
not intended that it should represent population alone, 
but wealth also, and the Senate or second chamber, 
especially, was designed to represent conservative forces. 
John Dickinson of New Jersey thought it should be a 
large body, as its influence, "from family weight and 
other causes, would be increased thereby."! Elbridge 
Gerry of Massachusetts, afterwards an ardent member 
of Jefferson's party, said it should be so constituted as 
to render secure "the commercial and moneyed in- 
terest. "J Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Caro- 
lina said it was meant to represent the wealth of the 
country. § George Mason suggested that no one be 
permitted to serve as a senator who was not possessed 
of a certain amount of property. 1[ Gouverneur ]\Iorris 
of Pennsylvania and John Rutledge of South Carolina 
agreed that the representation should be by wealth, not 
by numbers. II Abraham Baldwin of Georgia expressed 
the same view.** Charles Pinckney went a step further 
than :\Iason and would have had property qualifications 
for aU the high offices. The President should be worth 
at least $100,000 a Federal Judge at least $50,000, and 
members of Congress a less amount. tt Pierce Butler 
agreed with his colleague Rutledge that representation 
in both Houses should be according to the wealth of 

* Madison to W. C. Rives, October 21, 1S33. Works (Cong. Ed.) 
IV, 313. 
t "Madison Papers" (Gilpin) II, 817. 
J Id., II, 819. II Id., II, 1034-1035. 

§Id., II, 969. ** Id., II, 998- 

If Id., II, 972. ft Id., II, 1283. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 119 

the States. It was intended, however, to recognize the 
"democratic principle" by basing representation in 
the House upon population as "the only security for 
the rights of the people," but Madison also declared 
that in America the fairest way of measuring the wealth 
of a community was by the number of inhabitants * In 
estimating population it was agreed to count all the 
freemen and two-fifths of the slaves, this being the 
ratio proposed by Madison in Congress in 1783. The 
idea was that slaves partook of the nature of both popu- 
lation and property. They were estimated as property 
in computing the taxable wealth of a community and 
they had, under the law, certain limited personal rights. f 
As both the Annapolis and Philadelphia meetings 
were held at Virginia's initiative her delegates thought 
it incumbent upon them to offer the Convention some 
plan of government as a starting-point for the debates, 
and they spent three weeks, while waiting for a quorum 
of delegates to reach Philadelphia, in drawing one up. J 
It contained the features of .Madison's ideas of govern- 
ment, as outlined in his letters to Randolph and Wash- 
ington, but it was Randolph's hand that actually drew 
up the resolutions known in the Convention as "the 
Virginia plan," and as Governor of the State and a 
fluent and persuasive speaker the distinction of pre- 
senting it to the Convention fell to him. This he did on 
May 29, when eight States had assembled, in an exhaus- 
tive and able speech pointing out the evils of the existing 
system and explaining the general principles of the sub- 
stitute he offered. § It was not expected that this sub- 
stitute would come forth from the crucible of debate 
in the form in which it went in, and the Virginia dele- 
gates were not themselves bound to adhere to it. It was, 
however, not only the point from which the debate 
started, but the pivot about which it revolved. 

* Gilpin, II, 1074. 

t Id., II, 1083. 

X Rowland's "Life of George Mason," II, loi 

§ Gilpin, II, 727, et seq. 



I20 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

The plan comprised fifteen declaratory resolutions of 
principles which ought to be applied in the Government 
of the United States: 

There should be two branches of the National Legisla- 
ture, the members of the first to be elected every year, 
and all the power vested in the old Congress should belong 
to the new one, beside the right of legislating wherever 
the separate States were not competent, or " the harmony 
of the United States" might be "interrupted" by State 
legislation. There should be a National Executive, and 
a judiciary to consist of one or more supreme tribunals, 
and of subordinate tribunals to be instituted by the 
Legislature, jurisdiction to extend to piracies and fel- 
onies on the high seas, captures from an enemy, cases in 
which foreigners might be interested, or which respected 
the collection of the national revenue, and questions 
involving "the national peace and harmony." A re- 
publican form of government should be guaranteed to 
every State, and the proposed articles of union should 
be submitted for ratification to assemblies of representa- 
tives of the people in the several States, especially chosen 
for the purpose. These features of the Virginia plan 
finally appeared in the Constitution. 

But the plan further proposed that the members of 
the "second branch of the National Legislature," or 
Senate, should be elected by the members of the popular 
branch "out of a proper number of persons nominated 
by the individual legislatures," and that the National 
Legislature should have power to call forth the force of 
the United States against any State failing to fulfil its 
duties to the Union, and to negative all laws passed by 
the several States contravening the articles of union 
or any treaty; also that the National Executive should 
be chosen by the Legislature and be ineligible for re- 
election. Provision was made for a Council of Revision 
composed of the Executive and "a convenient number" 
of the National judiciary, to pass upon all laws coming 
from the National Legislature. If the Council disap- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 121 

proved of any act it was not to become operative, unless 
it was passed again by a vote of — members of both 
Houses of Congress. Under the same conditions State 
legislation not negatived by Congress could be vetoed 
by the Council. These features of the Virginia plan- did 
not appear in the Constitution. Several of them were 
especially favoured by Madison, — (i) A representation 
in both branches of the Legislature proportioned to the 
wealth and population of the respective States; (2) the 
right of negative of State acts by the National Congress, 
and (3) the Council of Revision to negative improper 
laws. 

As Madison explained in The Federalist (No. XXVII) 
the chief opposing forces in the Convention were the 
larger States, which wished a participation in the Na- 
tional Government proportioned to their importance, 
and the smaller States, which were tenacious of the 
equal representation they enjoyed under the Articles of 
Confederation. They fought their battle over the 
question of representation in the Senate, the delegates 
from the smaller States being a unit in insisting that it 
be equal for each State, and asserting positively that 
they would sign no instrument of government which 
made it otherwise. Luther Martin of Maryland, Gun- 
ning Bedford of Delaware, a former college mate of 
Madison's, who was under positive instructions from 
the Legislature of his State to accept no scheme of gov- 
ernment destroying State equality, Oliver Ellsworth 
of Connecticut, and John Dickinson of New Jersey, were 
the chief speakers on the side of the smaller States. 

In Madison's first speech in the Convention (May 30) 
he proclaimed as his central idea that a National Gov- 
ernment ought to be established and not a "federal one 
among sovereign States."* Later, in the course of 
debate, he said an equal voice in government by un- 
equal portions of the people would infuse mortality 
into a Constitution which ought to be so constructed as 

* Gilpin, II, 752. 



122 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

to last forever. He would preserve the State rights 
"as carefully as the trial by jury," but the new govern- 
ment was not to operate upon the States, but upon the 
people directly, and equal State representation might 
easily come to mean government by the minority. 
The smaller States threatened to disrupt the Union, 
unless they had their way. What, then, Madison asked, 
would be their position ? They would be a prey to the 
larger States, who would be under no obligations to 
protect them. 

On the other side Oliver Ellsworth said he depended 
for domestic happiness as much on his State government 
as an infant upon its mother for nourishment.* Dickin- 
son said Madison pushed the small States too far; that 
some of their representatives wished for two branches 
in the National Legislature and were friends to a strong 
National Government, but that they would rather sub- 
mit to a foreign power than be deprived, in both branches 
of the Legislature, of equality of suffrage, and thereby 
thrown under the domination of the larger States, f 
Bedford coincided in this view, and the members were 
shocked to hear in the heat of debate sentiments of 
disloyalty to the American Union. { 

Madison contended strenuously that there was no real 
difference between the interest of the smaller and larger 
States. The real opposition of interests lay, he ex- 
plained, between slave States and free States. He 
was so much impressed with this fact that it had occurred 
to him as a fair plan to apportion the votes in one House 
of Congress according to the number of free inhabi- 
tants only, and in the other according to the whole 
number, counting the slaves as equal to freemen. By 
this arrangement the South would have the advantage 
in one House and the North in the other. ^ The propo- 
sition met with no favour, for the delegates from the 
smaller States believed an adherence to their position 

* Gilpin, II, 1014. I Id., II, 1014. 

t Id., II, 863, n. ifld,, 1088. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 123 

to be absolutely necessary to their existence. The 
question thus became a simple one. It was whether 
the Convention should break up or surrender the point 
to the smaller States, and the committee that drafted 
the compromise in effect recognized this condition of 
affairs. To save appearance it was stipulated that 
money bills should originate only in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, but as the right of proposing amendments 
was finally given to the Senate this apparent concession 
amounted to nothing. The smaller States were not, 
however, ungrateful to the larger States, and in return 
for the vital point yielded them they voted steadily 
afterwards for those propositions which gave increased 
power to the General Government.* 

If Madison's plan had prevailed the boundaries of 
the several States would not have been destroyed and 
they would still have had complete control over their 
local affairs, but the idea of State sovereignty would 
have been killed beyond the hope of resurrection. This 
idea, was, however, stronger with the small States than 
their desire for the Union. 

The concession of equal State representation in the 
Senate was the most important of the so-called compro- 
mises between opposing interests made in the formation 
of the Constitution. Another one was effected towards 
the end of the Convention's sitting hardly less one- 
sided, but happily not permanent in its provisions. 
This was the bargain by which the slave trade was per- 
mitted to continue for twenty years for the benefit 
chiefly of South Carolina and Georgia, and taxation 
upon exports was prohibited for the benefit generally 
of the Southern States, in return for the power given 
Congress to pass navigation laws by a majority vote, 
ivhich it was supposed would prove profitable to the 
Eastern States. Broadly speaking, the interests of the 
country were divided into those of the plantation at the 
South and of commerce at the North. More minutely, 

* Bancroft VIII on Madison's authority. 



124 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

the fisheries and West India trade concerned New Eng- 
land ; New York's interests lay in free trade, as her chief 
port was an entrepot; the staples of Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey were wheat and flour ; tobacco was the staple 
of Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina; rice and 
indigo were the staples of Georgia and South Carolina.* 
It was argued that these different interests would be a 
source of oppression to each other if navigation and 
trade regulations might be made by a bare majority in 
Congress. 

Accordingly, the draft of the Constitution reported 
by the committee on detail August 6 contained an article 
providing that no navigation act should be passed by 
Congress, except by a two-thirds vote; also that no tax 
or duty should be laid on exports, nor upon the importa- 
tion of such persons as the States chose to admit. f The 
last clause would have tied the hands of Congress for- 
ever so far as regulating or stopping the slave trade 
was concerned, leaving the matter wholly within the 
control of the separate States. It was obnoxious to both 
Southern and Northern members, and strange to say, 
the defence of the proposition that the States should 
deal with the question came from Eastern men. J 
Gouvemeur Morris, seeing the trend of sentiment, said; 
"These things may form a bargain among the Southern 
and Northern States;" and on August 22 the slave trade 
and navigation clauses were both referred to a committee 
of one member from each State, Madison being selected 
as the member from Virginia.^ He was in favour of 
giving Congress the right to tax exports, not only for 
revenue but for protective and political purposes. "A 
proper regulation," he said, "of exports may, and prob- 
ably will be necessary hereafter and for the same purposes 
as the regulation of imports: viz., for revenue, domestic 
manufactures, and projecting equitable regulations from 

* C. Pinckney's Speech, Aug, 29, Gilpin III, 1450. 

t Gilpin II, 1233. 

J Id., Ill, 13S9. Hid., Ill, 1396. 



LIFE OP JAMES MADISON 125 

other nations. An embargo may be of absolute neces- 
sity and can alone be efeectuated by the general author- 
ity " He also held that navigation and trade regula- 
tions could properly be made by a majority vote m 
Congress and that they would benefit the South as well 
as the North * The disadvantage to the South of a 
navigation act lay, he said, in a temporary rise in freights. 
It would be followed, however, by an increase m Southern 
shipping and the emigration to the South of Northern 
seamen and merchants. The agricultural interests would 
be powerful enough to prevent an adverse combmation 
in Congress. New Jersey and Connecticut were really 
agricultural States and agricultural industries predom- 
inated in the interior of all the States. Material ac- 
cession to agricultural forces might soon be expected 
from the West. At any rate a greater maritime 
strength would result in a generally increased na- 
tional security in the benefits of which all sections would 

share 

Madison had nothing, therefore, to do with the bar- 
gain which ^lorris predicted. The parties to it were 
Georgia, South Carohna and North Carolina, on one 
side, and ^Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hamp- 
shire on the other, this making a majority of the States, 
for Hamilton was the only delegate from New ^ork 
and the State had no vote. The committee proposed 
that there should be no slave importations after the 
year 1800, and the first step in fulfilment of the bargain 
came August 25, when it was moved and carried that 
the date be extended to 1808. Virginia, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania and Delaware voted in the negative 
George Mason had already made his noble speech against 
the "infernal traffic,"! and Madison said: 'Twenty 
years wiU produce all the mischief that can be appre- 
hended from the liberty to import slaves. So long a 
term will be more dishonourable to the American charac- 

* Gilpin, III, 1384. 
t Id., II, 1390- 



126 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

ter, than to say nothing about it in the Constitution."* 
Concerning the proposition to lay a tax on the import 
of slaves, he said he thought it "wrong to admit in the 
Constitution the idea that there could be property in 
men. "t 

On August 29, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney said that, 
considering the "liberal conduct" of the Eastern States 
towards South Carolina, he would vote that the com- 
mercial regulations which the Eastern States desired 
might be made by a majority vote in Congress instead 
of the two-thirds vote required as the clause then stood. 
He acknowledged that he had come to Philadelphia 
with a prejudice against New England men, but he had 
been met by them in such a spirit of accommodation 
that his opinion had changed. He found them "as 
liberal and candid as any men whatever.".! 

So the bargain was completed. Slaves were to be 
imported freely for twenty years; there was to be no 
possible way, except by amending the Constitution 
itself, of preventing the trade. There was to be no tax- 
ation of exports, and trade and navigation acts could be 
passed by a majority vote in Congress. Georgia, South 
Carolina and North Carolina cared primarily for slaves, 
for in them they thought their wealth lay, and they 
wished to increase it by further importations. Their 
attachment to slavery was a stronger feeling than was 
their opposition to navigation acts. The desire for 
navigation acts was, on the other hand, very strong in 
New England, and several delegates from that section 
declared the Union was not desirable to them unless 
they could have national legislation to foster their com- 
merce. The selfish cupidity of this section thus allied 
itself with the perverted morality of South Carolina, 
Georgia and North Carolina, and the coalition probably 
saved the Constitution from rejection. 

* Gilpin, II, 1427. J Id., II, 1451. 

t Id.. II. 1430. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE GREAT CONVENTION. II. 

A NUMBER of the lesser provisions of the Constitution 
were incorporated on Madison's motion. These were: 
The power of the Federal Government to grant copy- 
rights and patents for inventions ; to dispose of the public 
lands and provide temporary government for them; 
to acquire, with the consent of the States, lands for 
Federal forts, arsenals, etc., and to regulate intercourse 
with the Indians. He was the author of the clause 
conferring exclusive jurisdiction in Congress over a 
seat of Government, when one should be chosen, and of 
the article specifying how amendments might be made.* 
He was in favour of the election of the President by 
popular vote,t and accepted as approximating this end 
the intermediate agency of the electoral college which 
Wilson suggested.! It proved at the first election to be 
only a vehicle for registering the public will, and has 
never been anything else. Upon Madison's motion a 
member of Congress was made ineligible for appoint- 
ment to an office created, or the emoluments of which 
had been increased, during his term of Congressional 
sei-vice. He assisted in putting the final touches to 
the Constitution, being a member of the committee on 
style, the last one appointed by the Convention. His 
colleagues were Johnson, Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris 
and King. They were selected as the most polished 
scholars and the best masters of the English tongue 
in the Convention. 

The most brilliant man of this galaxy had, however 

♦Gilpin III, 1353. $Id.,II, 1200. 

tid., II, 1148. 

127 



128 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

little to do with the actual framing of the Constitution. 
Alexander Hamilton's title to fame rests upon his par- 
ticipation in events before and after the Federal Con- 
vention, for his services in the Convention itself were 
not transcendant. There his State presented a sorry- 
spectacle, for his colleagues, Lansing and Yates, were 
anti-federalists, and they left Philadelphia in the middle 
of the proceedings and went home to endeavour to pave 
the way for unfavourable action in their State against 
the frame of government which they forsaw would be 
proposed to the people for adoption.* As long as they 
remained in the convention they were a living argument 
against the acceptability to the people of New York of 
Hamilton's ideas of government. 

These ideas he brought before the Convention im- 
mediately after the Paterson, or "Jersey plan," as it 
was called, had been presented, and after the Virginia 
plan had been under discussion for three weeks. The 
Jersey plan was intended to conserve the Articles of 
Confederation by making certain additions to them. 
The complete sovereignty of the States was to be main- 
tained and a single Congress was to be continued, but 
the General Government was to have revenue from 
imposts, stanxpS and the post office, and there was to 
be a plural-Executive removable by Congress.! 

On Jane i8 Hamilton presented his plan and made 
his great speech. He said he was unfriendly to both 
the Virginia and the Jersey plans, but especially to the 
latter, for he regarded the success of a new Government 
as impossible while the States were left in possession of 
their sovereignty. As long as this continued they 
pursued their own interests, and their tendency was to 
regain the powers they delegated. Their inhabitants 
were more anxious to prevent a dissolution of the State 
government, as the State government was a necessity 
immediately surrounding them. "All the passions, 

* Leake's "Life of John Lamb," 305. 
t Gilpin, II, 862, ei scq. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 129 

then, we see, of avarice, ambition, interest, which govern 
most individuals, and all public bodies, fall into the 
current of the States, and do not flow into the stream 
of the General Government." He thought the general 
power must swallow up the State powers or be swallowed 
up by them. He did not mean to shock public opinion 
by proposing an extinguishment of the State govern- 
ments, but they ought to be extinguished. The diffi- 
culty of securing the best talent to manage the National 
Government in a country so large as the United States 
was, however, a great problem, and made him almost 
despair of a republican government being possible over 
so great an extent. The British government was the 
best in the world, and he doubted whether anything 
short of it would do in America. It seemed to have 
been admitted that a good Executive could not be es- 
tablished on a republican basis. He w^as aware that 
his plan went beyond the ideas of most members. It 
could not be adopted out of doors, but neither could 
the Virginia plan be adopted at present. He saw signs 
that the people were being cured of their fondness for 
democracy and that they would in time be unshackled 
from their prejudices. He submitted his sketch, there- 
fore, chiefly as a suggestion of the amendments he would 
probably offer to the Virginia plan. His scheme pro- 
vided for two legislative chambers and a Supreme Execu- 
tive and judiciary, as in the Virginia plan, but the 
Senators and the Supreme Executive were to hold office 
during good behaviour, and the Governor of each State 
was to be appointed by the General Govemrnent. The 
Supreme Executive was to have absolute power of 
negative of all laws about to be passed, and each Gov- 
ernor was to have similar power over all^laws about to 
be passed in his State.* Much of Hamilton's speech 
was prophetic, and but little of it was of immediate 
application. It commanded the admiration of all,t 

* Gilpin, II, 828, et seq. 

t Yates' Report, Elliott's Debates, XI. 



I30 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

and George Read of Delaware openly expressed his 
approbation of the plan, stating that he wished to see 
the States wiped out of existence.* Probably Gouv- 
emeur Morris also agreed with him.f as he held a gov- 
ernment of the people in contempt; but not a single 
speech was made in Hamilton's support. 

When the Constitution was finally framed, he said he 
did not approve of it generally, but would accept it 
as preferable to anarchy. He did not believe it would 
prove to be durable, but one element of its durability 
he comprehended better than many of his colleagues 
did. 

The article in the Constitution concerning the powers 
of the supreme judiciary excited, in the course of the 
debate, but little opposition of sentiment, and did not 
apparently arouse a deep or widespread interest. The 
Virginia plan contemplated a court having a very re- 
stricted jurisdiction, chiefly, as we have seen, over 
admiralty and prize cases, and those involving "the 
national peace and harmony;" but the article finally 
adopted went many leagues beyond this. In The Fed- 
eralist (No. LXXVIII) Hamilton said "some perplex- 
ity" had arisen respecting the right of the Supreme Court 
to declare an act of the National Legislature unconsti- 
tutional. He thought, however, nothing was clearer 
than that every act of delegated authority contrary to 
the tenor of the commission was void, and, consequently, 
that no act of the Legislature contrary to the Constitu- 
tion would be valid. It was the business of the court, 
therefore, to ignore such an act, whenever, as he ex- 
plained in a later number (LXXXI), there was "evident 
opposition." Luther Martin, the most extreme State 
rights man in the Convention, as Hamilton was the 
most extreme consolidationist, wrote a letter to the 
Legislature of Maryland, June 28, 1788, opposing the 
ratification of the Constitution, and stating as one of 
the deprivations of State power for which it provided, 

* Gilpin, II, 990. t Rives, II, 352. 



\ 

LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 131 

that the Federal judges could determine whether any 
laws were contrary to the Constitution, and the States 
would be bound by the decision.* In the Convention 
Gouvemeur Morris said: "A law that ought to be 
negatived will be set aside in the judiciary department, 
and, if that security should fail, will be repealed by a 
national law." George Mason, James Wilson and 
others held the same opinion. John Francis Mercer, of 
Maryland, and John Dickinson, on the other hand, 
expressed their disapprobation of the doctrine that 
judges had authority to declare a law void. That there 
should have been perplexity on the subject was not 
strange, for the delegates had no precedent in England 
or America to guide them. 

The Articles of Confederation! made provision for 
a Federal Court of Appeals in admiralty cases, and for 
the settlement of disputes between any two States by 
the mutual appointment, upon petition, of commissioners 
or judges to constitute a court to hear and determine 
the question at issue. If the States in interest could 
not agree on the judges Congress might select them. 
Pennsylvania and Connecticut, in a controversy over 
lands on the Susquehanna River, applied for such a 
court and the case was the only one ever tried. A 
similar court was organized to hear a dispute between 
Georgia and South Carolina, and Madison was one of 
the judges, but it would appear the case never came to 
trial. 

In Virginia in 1782 Chancellor Wythe, speaking obiter 
dictum from the bench, expressed the opinion that the 
court had a right to declare void an act of the Assembly 
contrary to the Constitution of the State. { In May, 
1787, when the Federal Convention was sitting, the 
Superior Court of North Carolina so declared a certain 
act of the Legislature of that State, this being the first 

* Elliott's Debates, I, 380. 

t U. S. Reports, 131, appendix by the reporter, J. C. Bancroft Davis. 

I Rives, II, 264. 



132 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

judgment of the kind under a written Constitution * 
The Supreme Court of Rhode Island had, however, 
already made a similar judgment under an unwritten 
Constitution, and the judges were removed from office 
in consequence. t It was to this case that Madison 
referred in the Convention when he said (July 17); 
"In Rhode Island the judges who refused to execute an 
unconstitutional law were displaced and others substi- 
tuted, by the Legislature, who would be the willing 
instruments of their masters." 

In urging the clause of the Constitution providing 
for its adoption by the people and not by the State 
Legislatures, he said ratification by the Legislatures 
would make it a treaty and a law violating it "might 
be respected by the judges as a law, though an unwise 
and perfidious one. A law violating a Constitution 
established by the people would be considered by the 
judges as null and void." Evidently the remark was 
intended to apply to State legislation, for Roger Sherman 
in concurring said a law of a State contrary to the Con- 
stitution would be invalid. In the last stages of the 
Convention the judiciary article was moulded into this 
form: "The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court shall 
extend to all cases arising under the laws passed by the 
Legislature of the United States." This was amended 
so as to extend the jurisdiction to all cases arising "under 
the Constitution and the" laws passed by Congress. 
Madison promptly suggested that this went too far — 
that the court's jurisdiction ought not to extend "gen- 
erally to cases arising under the Constitution." It 
should be "limited to cases of a judiciary nature. The 
right of expounding the Constitution in cases not of this 
nature, ought not to be given to that department." 
Johnson, of Connecticut, who moved the amendment, 
explained that he did not mean to include a general 
jurisdiction and the clause was agreed to, "it being 

* Coxe on The Judicial Power, 248. 
t Id., 298. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 133 

generally supposed," as Madison reports, "that the 
jurisdiction given was constructively limited to cases 
of a judiciary nature. " The Dred Scott decision rendered 
seventy-five years later, was, as it happened, the first 
case in which a Federal statute declared by the Supreme 
Court to be unconstitutional did not relate to the judi- 
ciary.* 

^ladison, as we have seen, earnestly advocated the 
granting to Congress of power of negative over State 
acts, but this was not inconsistent with granting the 
Supreme Court power to declare such acts void. He 
wished to provide for some degree of harmony in State 
legislation and to avoid the necessity of applying coer- 
cion to arrest the operation of an unconstitutional law 
after it had gone into effect. Such extreme measures 
would, he said, be considered an act of war by the co- 
erced State and a dissolution of all existing contracts, 
and would involve a disruption of the Union, all of which 
would be avoided if unconstitutional laws could be 
strangled at birth. 

On the other hand he would hardly have advocated, 
as he did, the Council of Revision, with some of the 
Federal judges as members, to pass upon National legis- 
lation, if he had seen in his mind's eye the possibility 
that when on the bench these members might be called 
upon to pronounce, not upon the construction of the 
law, but upon the question whether it should not be 
stricken from the statute books. It would be an un- 
natural assumption to say he supposed that a National 
law which had gone through the Council of Revision 
might be declared void by the judiciary. It must be 
remembered, however, that if the judiciary article in 
the Constitution did not mean to Madison all that it 
subsequently developed into, he was not alone. Some 
members doubtless thought the power of declaring a 
State law contrary to the Constitution void was lodged 
in the Supreme Court, but not the power of so declaring 

* Coxe on The Judicial Power, 20. 



134 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

an act of Congress; others thought this power also ex- 
isted; and yet others accepted the article and did not 
speculate as to what its effect would be. 

Gouvemeur Morris and James Wilson were the only 
two members who spoke in the Convention oftener 
than Madison. Morris exerted an influence over the 
proceedings by his fearless criticism of the various propo- 
sitions offered, but Wilson brought a conservative in- 
tellect and far-seeing statesmanship to bear upon them, 
and much of the credit for the result belongs to him. 
As the days and weeks went by, however, and step by 
step the Convention got forward towards its goal, the 
fact became generally recognized that the first man of 
the assemblage w^as James Madison. William Pierce, a 
delegate from Georgia, described him in the notes he 
took in the Convention:* "Mr. Maddison is a character 
who has long been in public life ; but what is very re- 
markable every Person seems to acknowledge his great- 
ness. He blends together the profound politician, with 
the scholar. In the management of every great ques- 
tion he evidently took the lead in the Convention, and 
tho' he cannot be called an Orator, he is a most agreeable, 
eloquent, and convincing speaker. From a spirit of 
industry and apphcation which he possesses in a most 
eminent degree, he always comes forward the best in- 
formed Man of any point in debate. The affairs of the 
United States, he perhaps has the most correct knowl- 
edge of, of any Man in the Union. He has been twice a 
member of Congress, and was always thought one of 
the ablest Members that ever sat in that Council. Mr. 
Maddison is about 37 years of age, a Gentleman of great 
modesty, — with a remarkably sweet temper. He is 
easy and unreser\^ed among his acquaintances, and 
has a most agreeable style of conversation." 

He represented the largest, richest, and most influ- 
ential State in the Union, the one which had led in the 
great events culminating in the Convention. In the 

* American Historical Review, VII, 331. 



LIFE OF JAMES MxVDISON 135 

progress of debate it became apparent that his distin- 
guished colleagues, Mason and Randolph, were so strongly 
opposed to some of the articles of the Constitution that 
they could not be depended upon to advocate its adop- 
tion. Madison, however, kept the majority of the Vir- 
ginia delegation with him and spoke for the State. He 
was willing to sacrifice some of his opinions in order to 
gain a result approximating his desires. He had no 
unique scheme of government which he had personally 
evolved and to which he was irrevocably attached. 
He wished to frame a government strong enough to 
preserve the Union, to fulfil its obligations, and to 
command obedience at home and respect abroad. He 
attended to the business before him with untiring devo- 
tion and was more continuously present at the sittings 
of the Convention than any other prominent member. 
He was uninfluenced in his course by any selfish motives 
He wished primarily to see a measure drafted that would 
stand a fair chance of adoption by the people, and this 
feeling fortunately was dominant in the Convention. 

The result was a work coming from "men m a world 
of men " and not from youthful idealists nor beings of 
perfect 'wisdom. As it was obtained by mutual sacri- 
fices of individual preferences it was wholly satisfactory 
to none, although moderately satisfactory to nearly all 
Pierce Butler said: "We must follow the example of 
Solon, who gave the Athenians not the best govern- 
ment he could devise, but the best they would receive 
Wilson said that one reason why the Constitution should 
be submitted to the people and not the State govern- 
ments for ratification was that the State governments 
would be certain to oppose it.* But the people them- 
selves knew hardly anything more than State govern- 
ments and had for the most part only State ideals. Madi- 
son, Hamilton, Rutledge and the other great leaders 
could look beyond State borders and see a great future 
for a new American nation ; but how would the people 



* Yates. 



136 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

generally receive a Constitution that destroyed some 
and crippled other of the powers of the States? In 
these States centred all the material interests and most 
of the sentimental feelings of their inhabitants. As 
Story has said, "The wonder, indeed, is not, under such 
circumstances, that the Constitution should have en- 
countered the most ardent opposition, but that it should 
ever have been adopted at all by a majority of the States. 



CHAPTER XV 

FORMING THE LINES 



Madison was now thirty-four years old and was sti a 
bachelor His blood flowed temperately, but not coldly, 
and in 1786 he was so attentive to some lady whose 
identity has been lost that there were rumours that he ^ 
was about to be married. General Henry Lee, who 
told him he "loved and respected" him, congratulated 
him with enthusiasm and expressed the hope that the 
condition on which he was about to enter would soften 
his political asperities. The report penetrated to Ken- 
tucky and Caleb Wallace also sent his felicitations.* ' 
How near consummation the affair was, or why it failed, 
there is now nothing to show. , . , , . .. , ,,, 
As the statesman left youth behind him his health 
improved and his body filled out, but he ^;as not robust 
and suffered often from digestive troubles. He still 
dressed soberly, but less like a parson than in the earlier 
days He affected, we are told, a springing, rising step, 
probablv to overcome his defects of stature; and the 
somewhat rustic bearing which had marred his manner 
in early manhood had disappeared.! Blessed by Heaven 
with a ready sense of humour, which official cares did 
not destroy, he was a genial companion and enjoyed 
personal popularity. His social circle was arge and the 
best in America, and in it his rank was high, with every 
promise of increasing importance m the future, in 
his county his neighbours and large family connection 
looked up to him with pride; but among the people at 

* Deot of State MSS. . . tt .l • „i 

t ^^rginia Convention of 1788" (Grigsby) Virg^ma Histoncal 

Collections, IX, 96. 



138 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

large, — the crowd that is, — he was not well known and 
had no foUowing, for he had none of the showy qualities 
of the popular leader. He had the homage of men of 
his class, the respect of all good men, the affection of a 
chosen few, and the personal hatred of none. It is 
probable that his dominant personal sentiment was his 
affection for Thomas Jefferson, and in turn Jefferson 
treated him with extraordinary confidence and respect. He 
was entrusted with the education of Jefferson's nephews 
during their uncle's absence and selected their schools. 
The library at ]\Ionticello was free to him, but that at 
Montpelier was growing larger every day, many of the 
books being sent over by Jefferson at Madison's request, 
Jefferson gave him a watch, and in 1785 urged him to 
buy a small farm near Monticello, so that they might 
look forward to an uninterrupted companionship. He 
begged him to visit him in Paris, but Madison was obliged 
to decline. He had in 1783 refused an appointment as 
Minister to Spain. His development was, therefore, 
unassisted by foreign travel, but he knew Italian, in 
which language Mazzei and Bellini usually corresponded 
with him, beside the Spanish and French which he had 
learned in his childhood. 

While the warmest affection and intimacy existed 
between Jefferson and Madison they did not co-operate 
in public affairs either immediately before, or during, 
or immediately after the formation of the constitution 
of the United States. The philosopher was enjoying 
himself in Paris and following out trains of thought that 
sometimes led him to absurd conclusions. He loved 
liberty so ardently that he seriously doubted, he wrote, 
whether men were not best off without any gov- 
ernment at all, as some of the Indians lived ; at any rate 
he was quite sure that " a little revolution now and then " 
was a good thing to have in a free State.* He seemed 
oblivious of the cold fact that unless something were 
speedily done to save it his country would soon have 

* "Writings of Jefferson" (Ford) IV, 362. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 139 

no government and a "little revolution" that would 
probably undo the work of the great Revolution. While 
he was indulging his fancy Madison was at work m 

earnest 

Soon' after the Constitution was published there 
arose throughout the country a formidable opposition 
to its acceptance. It came chiefly from three classes: 
first, those who looked upon the Federal authority as 
foreign authority that had merely taken the place of 
Great Britain and who consequently feared an enlarge- 
ment of it would lead to oppression; second, those who 
were willing to give the Federal Government a few ad- 
ditional powers, but wished a continuance of the Articles 
of Confederation, thinking that a more centralized 
government would wipe out the State governments; 
third, those who wished the Union to break up and 
hoped that three or more separate confederacies would 
emerge from the wreck, this being the smallest class of 
all and the most silent, for it did not work by direct 
arguments. As New York was the Capital, the opposi- 
tion was most active there, in hope of producing an im- 
pression on Congress before the Constitution went to 
the people. To counteract this opposition, Alexander 
Hamilton and John Jay determined to print a series of 
papers defending and explaining the Constitution, and 
they invited Madison to co-operate. Jay had not been 
in the Convention that framed the Constitution, and 
Hamilton's views had not prevailed there. Madison, 
therefore, had an easier task than either of his associates, 
for he had merely to recast arguments already made. 
The first papers appeared over the signature "A Citizen 
of New York," and were designed for circulation m 
that State, but afterwards the pseudonym " Publius " 
was adopted, and the papers were intended /or the 
whole country. Jay falling ill, Hamilton and Madison 
wrote nearly all the papers, not in collaboration but 
separately, twenty-nine of the eighty-five coming from 



I40 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

Madison's pen.* The tenth of the series, which was 
his first, was on the Union as a safeguard against do- 
mestic faction. It was followed by his answer to the 
allegation that the country was too extensive to exist 
as one confederacy; his familiar illustrations that the 
cause of the downfall of all previous confederacies was 
their lack of cohesion; an exposition of the difficulties 
encountered by the Convention and the impossibility 
of framing a perfect plan, urging that its virtues be 
studied and its defects not magnified; an explanation 
that the scheme intended a republic not a democracy; 
a defence of the powers of the Convention; a general 
view of the powers of the Union; an argument against 
the supposition that the Union would be dangerous to 
the State governments, in which he stated that if the 
sovereignty of the States could not be reconciled with 
the happiness of the people the sovereignty of the States 
ought to be sacrificed ; an explanation of the distribution 
of government powers, and essays on the House and 
Senate. As to the representation in the Senate he said 
it was a necessary compromise and a lesser evil. He 
would have the people contemplate the advantages 
that might arise from the clause as it stood, rather than 
anticipate the possible mischiefs. 

As the papers of The Federalist appeared they were 
sent throughout the country and gained many converts, 
especially among the most influential class of citizens. 
Rev. James Madison, of William and Mary, for ex- 
ample, one of the most liberal churchmen and scholars 
of his day, wrote his cousin soon after the Convention 
adjourned that he considered the Constitution "the 
chef d'oeuvreoi continental wisdom, " but he feared the 
institution of a single Executive and Senate, both prob- 

* Rives, II, 482, et scq. 

Jacob Gideon, Jr., wrote to Madison, Washington, January 19, 
18 18, that he intended to print a new edition of TJie Federalist and 
wished to know the name of the author of each number and Madison 
returned the edition sent him with the names affixed (Mad. MSS.) 
The author has used the Gideon edition. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 141 

ably to hold for life, would lead to aristocracy and tyr- 
anny; but a few weeks later (Feb. 9, 1788,) he said 
the letters of "Publius" had well-nigh worked a con- 
version in him. George Nicholas, who had a minute 
knowledge of public opinion in Virginia, distributed 
the letters in the disaffected portions of the State, es- 
pecially in Kentucky; but it required more than The 
Federalist to overcome the opposition in that State.* 

Of the Virginia delegates to the Philadelphia Con- 
vention Randolph and Mason refused to sign the 
Constitution. Randolph wished to hold himself free 
to follow whatever course should seem best and would 
not tie his hands. He hoped to secure a second Con- 
vention to formulate amendments before ratification; 
at least this was his attitude when he left Philadelphia. 
Mason disapproved of too many features of the Con- 
stitution to commit himself to support the whole. When 
he left Philadelphia there was small prospect that he 
would not be in the opposition. Jefferson once spoke 
of Randolph as a chameleon constantly changing his 
hues, but it would be fairer to say he had a hopelessly 
impartial temperament and so easily saw both sides of 
a question that he was never quite sure that he was on 
the right side. Public affairs were not George Mason's 
first interest. He lived on his plantation and knew 
little of what went on at Philadelphia or New York. 
He failed, therefore, just as Jefferson did, to reaHze the 
dangers impending, and Madison's efforts to arouse 
him to a sense of the approaching crisis in 1785 came to 
naught. He was not a man whom others ^could in- 
fluence. He lived in a little world of which he was the 
head and he was accustomed to have his own way. He 
did not have it at Philadelphia, and he determined to 
try to have it in Virginia. When he first returned he 
was reported to have said of the Constitution that he 
was willing to take it all rather than lose it all, but 
criticisms of his course in refusing to sign it reached his 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



142 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

ears and embittered him. Some of his admirers, too, 
encouraged him to believe that he could frame a Con- 
stitution himself, that he had influence enough to have 
it approved by Virginia, and that Virginia was powerful 
enough to compel its acceptance by the other States.* 

His protest against the Constitution printed in Octo- 
ber, 1787, in a folio broadside, was the briefest and most 
cogent of the papers of the kind emanating from the 
anti-federalists, t The absence of a bill of rights, in- 
sufficient representation in the House, the overwhelm- 
ing power of the Senate, the absence of a Council of State 
as a check upon the President, the too great power of 
the President and Congress, the permission of the slave- 
trade — these were the chief grounds of his objection. 
The measure would, he said, result in a monarchy, or 
a corrupt and oppressive aristocracy. 

There was another man in opposition who wielded a 
greater power than Mason. Patrick Henry was selected 
as one of the Virginia delegates to the Federal Conven- 
tion, but declined to go, "being too distressed in his 
circumstances." This was the reason he gave the 
Governor, but it was generally suspected that he wished 
to be free to oppose or approve the result of the Con- 
vention's labours, as he saw fit. Up to this time he 
was supposed to be of the Federalist party, but he had 
never given any real assistance to the efforts made to 
strengthen the General Government. He was now 
classed by the more ardent Federalists as a disunionist. 
Henry Lee wrote in December, 1787, "Henry is the 
leader of this band," George Nicholas wrote April 5, 
1788, that Henry had become almost avowedly the 
enemy of the Union and would oppose any plan to 
strengthen it, and that those who then followed him 
would leave him if his real designs were known to them. 
Rev. John Blair Smith, a Presbyterian minister, presi- 
dent of Hampden-Sidney College, wrote June 12 that 

* George Nicholas to Madison, April 5, 1788, Dept. of State MSS. 
t Ford's "Essays On the Constitution." 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 143 

Henry had resorted to lower means to poison the minds 
of the people against the Constitution than he had ever 
exerted before. He had written to Kentucky that 
ratification would mean the closing of the Mississippi, 
and was busy persuading the people that it would carry 
with it church establishment,* Archibald Stewart, a 
member of the Assembly, wrote December 21, 1787, 
that on every available occasion Henry gave the Con- 
stitution a side blow.f Edward Carrington, a member of 
Congress, reported February 10, 1788, that he had been 
travelHng in the track of Henry and the people were 
disposed to follow him blindly, that he specified no 
amendments that he wanted, and it was believed aimed 
at dismemberment of the Union, There was danger, 
Carrington said, that weak men, no matter what their 
views might be before, would be led away by his elo- 
quence when the Convention to consider ratification 
should meet. I 

Henry was making the fight of his life. When the ques- 
tion of providing for the ratification Convention came be- 
fore the General Assembly, the majority was not hostile to 
the Constitution, Henry moved (October 25), that 
the Convention should be vested with power to propose 
amendments to the Constitution, this being intended as 
a quasi-instruction to make amendments the condition 
of ratification, but John Marshall offered a substitute 
providing "for full and free investigation and discussion" 
and this was passed. In a month Henry turned the ma- 
jority to himself, and November 30 introduced a bill to pay 
the expenses of delegates to another constitutional conven- 
tion if one should be determined upon, and for a delegation 
to visit the other States and consult on amendments. To 
the terror of the Federalists this effort to prejudice the 
action of the coming Convention was carried by a major- 
ity of fifteen votes. ^ 

* Dept. of State MSS. 

t To Madison, October 21, 1787, Dept. of State MSS. 

t Dept. of State MSS. ^ Rives, II, 532, et seq. 



144 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

Richard Henry Lee was also in the opposition. He 
was wilHng to do no more than extend the powers of 
Congress under the existing system, and wrote to the 
Virginia delegates in this sense when the Philadelphia 
Convention met. After it adjourned he planned, as we 
shall presently see, to alter it in the Continental Con- 
gress of which he was a member. A proud, passionate 
man, who lived like a petty prince, he received his 
tone from no one, as Washington said. Nevertheless, 
he loved popularity and courted applause, and it was 
hinted that this fact influenced his action.* Fortunately 
he decided not to enter the Virginia Convention, being 
in bad health, but before it met (October, 1787), he 
wrote a series of letters over the signature "The Federal 
Farmer," and they had great popularity among the 
anti-federalists. 

William Grayson, also a member of the Continental 
Congress, was at first barely neutral and then actively 
hostile. James Monroe, whose star was slowly rising. 
General Nelson, lately Governor, whose star was sinking 
in old age, but who still had weight with the people 
because of his eminent services in the past, and Benjamin 
Harrison, also an ex-Governor, a tough veteran of rugged 
power, were among the opponents of the Constitution. 
From over the water there came not a word of assistance 
to the friends of the measure from the great leader who 
had written the Declaration of Independence. On the 
contrary he damned it with faint praise and criticism 
and desired its ratification without Virginia's assist- 
ance, having an ill-defined notion that if this were ac- 
complished the State could subsequently force amend- 
ments as the price of her viltimate accession to the Union. 

Dr. William McClurg, one of the Virginia delegates at 

* Benjamin Hawkins, a friend of Madison's, Warrenton, February 14, 
1788, reported the following questions from an illiterate wheelwright 
who had been reading the Constitution and Lee's criticism of it: "Is 
Mr. Lee thought to be a great man ? Is he not a provid, passionate 
man ? Was he one of the Convention ? * * * Is he fond of popu- 
larity ? Is he an enemy to General Washington and Doer. Franklin ? " 
Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 145 

Philadelphia, where he made but two speeches and 
always voted with Madison, returned to Richmond in 
October and canvassed the state of public opinion with 
reference to the Constitution.* When it first reached 
the people, he said, nearly everybody liked it; then they 
began to examine it closely and, of course, found flaws 
in it. Their chief objections were to the combined 
powers of appointment lodged in Senate and President, 
the extraordinarv power the latter might exercise over 
the House of Representatives, and the power of Congress 
over the time and manner of choosing representatives. 
To these George Lee Turberville, a member of the As- 
sembly and a warm Federalist, added as prevailing ob- 
jections: The absence of a bill of rights, the absence of 
a Council of State, the power given the judiciary which 
would eventually destroy the State courts, the inhibi- 
tion of any State from raising revenue by taxing ex- 
ports, the permission to import slaves for twenty-one 
years, and that treaties could be ratified without the 
consent of the House of Representatives.! Even the 
advocates of the Constitution came to the conclusion 
that its ratification would not be possible without a 
concession to the widespread desire for amendments. 
These, they insisted, however, should be recommended 
for adoption in the way prescribed by the Constitution 

itself. 

Shortly after the Federal Convention adjourned 
Madison received a letter from Carrington| in Con- 
gress earnestly requesting him to come to New York 
at once, as the Virginia delegation was hopelessly split 
and Richard Henry Lee unopposed by Grayson was 
concerting measures against the new Constitution. 
Carrington for himself confessed that he did not like 
every part of it, but said he saw not how he could ever 
combine his strength and interests with others without 

*McCliirg to Madison, Richmond, October 31, 1787. Dept. of 
State MSS. 

t To Madison, December 11, 1787. N. Y. Public Library (Lenox) 
MSS. 

X Dated September 23, 1787. Dept. of State MSS. 



146 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

sacrificing some of his personal opinions. Responding 
to this appeal Madison hastened to New York and he 
and his party succeeded in suppressing the hostility 
to the Constitution in Congress and having it referred 
for consideration to conventions of the States as the 
Federal Convention planned. 

His first idea was that it would be more becoming if 
those who had framed the Constitution should not attend 
the conventions called to ratify or reject it, but he heard 
that Alason intended to stand for election in Virginia 
and he yielded to the importunate entreaties of his 
friends and determined to seek an election himself. 
Andrew Shepherd, one of his influential neighbours, 
wrote December 22, 1787,* to say there would be no 
difficulty in securing the election in Orange county, 
but Henry Lee seemed to doubt this, and suggested 
that there were several counties in Kentucky which 
would be glad to choose him if Orange county did not.f 
Archibald Stewart, who had seen Henry change a favour- 
able to an unfavourable majority in the Assembly, 
wrote "for God's sake do not disappoint the anxious 
expectations of y'' friends & let me add y'' country! ''J 
Two delegates were allowed for each county and in 
Orange county, beside Madison, Gordon, Parker and 
Thomas Barbour were candidates, the two latter being 
avowed anti-federalists, who made such an industrious 
contest that Madison's friends and his father were 
alarmed for the result, and wrote to him that the voters 
were wavering and his presence was necessary. The 
Baptists especially, of whom there were many in the 
county, had been influenced by Henry's arguments.^ 

Madison returned the day before the election and made 
but one speech, but he won a number of necessary votes 
by good luck. While riding about fifteen miles north 
of Montpelier, he stopped to refresh himself and his horse 

* N. Y. Public Library (Lenox) MSS. 
t December, 1787. Dept. of State MSS. 
t Richmond, Nov. 2, 17S7. Dept. of State MSS. 
f Madison to Madison, Orange, January 20, 1788. Dept. of State 
MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 147 

at a place called Gum Spring, and accidentally fell in with 
Rev. Mr. Leland, one of the chief Baptist clergymen of 
that section of the State. The conversation immediately 
turned upon the new Constitution and Madison and the 
parson argued it point by point for some hours, the 
final outcome being the parson's conversion and a change 
of heart on the part of the Baptist voters. Madison 
was elected the next day by a reasonable majority, his 
colleague being James Gordon, also a federalist. The 
general result of the elections was supposed to be favour- 
able to the ratification, but definite predictions could 
not be made, for the delegates were not pledged and 
many had not made up their minds. 

General Washington, thinking he could be of more 
service to the cause outside, decided not to enter the 
Convention. Chancellor Wythe, one of the delegates 
at Philadelphia, from which city he had been called 
away soon after the Convention met by the illness of 
his wife, also lent his influence on the side of the Con- 
stitution. So did John Blair, a silent delegate at Phila- 
delphia, but a man of importance in the State, and Dr. 
McClurg. So did Edmund Pendleton, now old and 
crippled by a fall from his horse, but still among the 
most respected of the Virginians, and George Nicholas, 
Edward Carrington, Henry Lee and Francis Corbin. Ed- 
mund Randolph, when he returned from Philadelphia, 
was coldly received by his Federalist friends.* As 
Governor he laid the Constitution before the General 
Assembly and accompanied it with a letter explaining 
and excusing his refusal to sign it. Carrington de- 
clared the letter helped the Federahsts, but it was not 
until the eve of the Convention that Randolph distinctly 
arrayed himself with that party. Mason and his friends 
considered him an apostate, and after the ratification 
was carried Mason wrote of him (December 18, 1788,) as 
the "young A Id" (Arnold). t 

* Archibald Stewart to Madison. Richmond, November 2, 1787. 
Dept. of State MSS. 

t Rowland's "Mason," II, 308. 



CHAPTER XVI 
Madison's triumph 

When the Virginia Convention met the Constitution 
had been ratified by eight States, — Delaware, Pennsyl- 
vania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachu- 
setts, (by a bare majority,) Maryland and South Caro- 
lina. In the New Hampshire Convention there was a 
hostile majority, but the Federalists succeeded in ob- 
taining an adjournment, and there was a meeting in 
June for the second time. In New York, also, the 
majority was hostile, and Hamilton declared the Con- 
stitution could not be ratified unless \^irginia took 
favourable action. The adoption thus really depended 
on Virginia. New Hampshire, it is true, took favour- 
able action before Virginia did, thus completing the 
nine States necessary under the Constitution to put it 
into effect, but if Virginia had acted unfavourably. 
New York would also have done so, and with North 
Carolina's help measures could have been concerted 
to cause a reconsideration by some of the States, which 
had ratified in the belief that all the other States would 
do the same. 

The Virginia Convention was called to order the first 
Monday in June, 1788, in the State House at Richmond; 
but the hall being inadequate to hold comfortably the 
170 members and numerous spectators an adjournment 
was taken to the "New Academy on Shockoe Hill," 
a building erected by the Chevalier Quesnay for a 
French-American University. It stood on the north 
side of Broad Street between Twelfth and Thirteenth, 
in the square where the monumental church now is. 
There was some dispute over the elections from Accomack, 

148 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON i49 

Franklin, Cumberland and Westmoreland counties, but 
it occupied little attention, and on June 4, two days 
after the first meeting, the Convention resolved itself 
into committee of the whole and proceeded to its main 
business.* A week later Henry, in writing to General 
John Lamb in New York, said that the parties in the 
Convention were almost evenly divided, but that four- 
fifths of the people of the State were opposed to the 
Constitution.! The latter statement he repeated in de- 
bate, and it was an exaggeration ; but it is, nevertheless, 
true that a direct vote of the people on the Constitution 
would probably have been unfavourable to it. The 
plan of the opposition in the Convention was to break 
down the Constitution by showing its weak spots and 
loading it with amendments. The Federalists wished 
to debate it article by article, when it could be success- 
fully defended, and then to agree to recommend amend- 
ments for the first Congress to take up in the manner 
provided by the Constitution itself. 

Pendleton was chosen president and Wythe chairman 
of the committee of the whole, but this was merely a 
recognition of their ability as presiding officers and 
meant no preference for their views. J 

The leaders of the Federalist forces were Madison, 
Pendleton, George Nicholas, John Marshall, Innes, 
Henry Lee and Francis Corbin. Their chief opponents 
were Patrick Henry, George Mason, James Monroe, 
William Grayson, Benjamin Harrison and John Tyler. 
It was a battle of the giants, the Hke of which was never 
seen before, but the strongest man among the giants 
was the delegate from Orange coimty, and this because 
no other man was so completely armed and so familiar 

* "Journal of the Convention of Virginia," Virginia State Library 
MSS. 

t Henry's "Henry," II, 335, et seq. 

% "The Debates and Other Proceedings of the Convention of Vir- 
ginia "(Robertson) Petersburg, 1788, is reproduced in "Elhotts 
Debates," Vol. III. Grigsby's "Virginia Convention of 1788,' Vir- 
ginia Historical Collections IX, is an interesting and valuable narrative 
account of the proceedings of the Convention and its leading characters. 



ISO LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

v/ith the methods of attack and defence as he. He 
had spent his Hfe preparing for the Philadelphia Con- 
vention, he had done more than any other member to 
frame the plan it submitted, he had already spoken 
often on every phase of the plan, he had heard every 
conceivable argument that could be brought against it 
and all the answers, he had defended it point by point 
with pen and speech. Mason, who was his chief op- 
ponent in logical argument, had not given a tenth part 
as much attention to the subject as Madison had. More- 
over, Mason was now opposing some provisions in favour 
of which he had argued at Philadelphia, and he lost his 
temper, which was a serious handicap. Next to Madi- 
son, Edmund Randolph and George Nicholas made the 
most effective speeches, but Randolph was an object of 
easy attack because of his previous vacillation. 

In the beginning the debate was allowed to roam at 
will over the whole field, and being a contest of decla- 
mation the chances were favourable to Henry's party; 
but after ten days spent in this way the Convention 
began on June 14 to consider the Constitution article 
by article, and the tide turned. On this day Madison 
spoke thirteen times and in the three succeeding days 
twenty-two times. The arguments used in this great 
debate are now mere curiosities. Time has shown that 
the fears of Mason and Henry were absolutely unfounded. 
Mason's arguments were generally such as he had out- 
lined in his broadside six months before ; but the country 
has suffered nothing from the omissions in the Con- 
stitution which caused him so much concern, the 
representation in the House of Representatives has 
been found to be adequate and increases sufficiently, 
the Senate has developed no tyrannical power, the 
Supreme Court acts automatically to keep the necessary 
balance of powers, the President created an advisory 
council for himself at the very beginning. 

Henry's arguments were general, their chief corner- 
stone being that the new Government would eventuate 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 151 

in consolidation, the obliteration of State lines and loss 
of liberty. He would have had the Constitution begin 
" We, the States, " etc., instead of " We, the people, " etc. 
Ten years later he was telling the people with perfect 
satisfaction that Virginia was to the Union what Caroline 
County was to Virginia ! 

Madison's first great speech was made June 16, 1787, 
immediately after a long and elaborate argument by 
Randolph. He was in striking contrast to his colleague, 
for Randolph was a large man of great personal beauty, 
with a full musical voice, a ready flow of richly orna- 
mented language, and an easy graceful gesticulation. 
During the whole time the Convention sat Madison 
was ill and feeble, and for two days he was absent from 
his seat. When he rose to speak he usually carried his 
hat in his hand, as though he had not intended to make a 
set speech. His thin voice was hardly audible when 
he began and often sank so that it failed to reach the 
reporter's desk. He gesticulated but little, and as he 
warmed with his argument his body swayed to and fro 
with a see-saw motion. So small was he beside the 
other delegates who were nearly all large men, that 
when he rose to speak he could with difficulty be seen 
from all parts of the haU. He usually carried notes of 
his speech, written upon slips of paper in a microscopic 
hand, and they were a complete skeleton of his argu- 
ment. He used simple and direct language without any 
ornamentation, and he indulged in no verbal flights. 
He spoke only for the purpose of explaining, defending 
and convincing, and seemed to be indifferent to ap- 
plause. John Marshall was listening to him and in 
after years said, "If convincing is eloquence he was the 
most eloquent man I ever heard." An outline of his 
first speech will serve as an indication of the others he 
made. 

To quiet the fears that tyranny would follow because 
of the powers given government by the Constitution 
he declared an examination of history would show that 



152 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

abuse of power by the majority trampling on the rights 
of the minority had produced turbulence, factions and 
consequent despotism more than anything else. He 
ridiculed Henry's statement that the country needed no 
change, being then in repose, and asked how if this were 
so, it happened that deputies from all the States but one 
had been sent to the Philadelphia Convention ? Henry's 
fear of the provision concerning the militia was un- 
founded as the new plan only allowed the General Gov- 
ernment to control it for the specific purposes of executing 
the laws, suppressing insurrections and repelling inva- 
sions. As for the dreaded power of raising armies he 
wished it were not necessary, but must not the General 
Government have power to defend the United States, 
if a foreign country should make war against it ? Would 
not the knowledge that no such power existed stimulate 
foreign countries to fall upon us? Henry had instanced 
Switzerland as a confederacy of independent States 
which were happy, but, Madison suggested, if he had 
looked a little further he w^ould have found in several 
of the cantons the vilest aristocracy that ever existed. 
As for amendments, if one State proposed them others 
would do so, and they would be hopelessly diverse in 
character. 

He then explained the Constitution. It stood by it- 
self. In some respects it was Federal ; in others it was 
of a consolidated nature; yet it was neither completely. 
The parties to it were the people, that is, the people 
as composing thirteen sovereignties. If it were com- 
pletely consolidated a majority of all the people could 
ratify it, but a majority had already pronounced for it. 
As a matter of fact, however, no State was bound by it 
without its own consent. It was intended to be a Gov- 
ernment established by the thirteen States, acting by 
their people — not by their legislatures. It was in this 
regard totally different from the existing Govern- 
ment, which was derived from the dependent au- 
thority of the Legislatures of the States. Then, the 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 153 

House was elected by the people at large in proportion 
to population, but the Senate by the States in their 
equal and political capacity. It was thus a complicated 
scheme of government, which he hoped would avoid 
the evils of consolidation and of confederation as well. 
Henry had satirized the powers proposed to be given the 
General Government, but he submitted that power to 
collect taxes was an absolute necessity, especially in 
time of war. That the General Government would 
swallow up the State governments seemed an absurdity, 
when it was remembered that the representatives must 
depend upon the people of the States for their election 
and the Senators upon the State Legislatures. 

It was during the last week of the Convention that 
Henry attempted a trick of great adroitness which 
came near being successful. We have seen how before 
the meeting he had sedulously spread the report in 
Kentucky that the Constitution, if adopted, would 
result in the closing of the navigation of the Mississippi. 
If the fourteen Kentucky delegates voted against ratifi- 
cation Henry would carry the day, and they would be 
certain to vote against it, if they could be brought to 
believe it would result in closing the river. Henry, 
therefore, without premonition of his intention made 
this argument: "There is no danger of a dismember- 
ment of our country, unless a Constitution be adopted 
which will enable the Government to plant enemies on 
our backs. By the confederation, the rights of territory 
are secured. No treaty can be made without the con- 
sent of nine States. While the consent of nine States 
is necessary to the cession of territory, you are safe. If 
it be put in the power of a less number, you will most 
infallibly lose the Mississippi. As long as we can pre- 
serve our unalienable rights, we are in safety. This 
new Constitution will involve in its operation the loss of 
the navigation of that valuable river. 

"The honourable gentlemen cannot be ignorant of 
the Spanish transactions. A treaty had been nearly 



154 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

entered into with Spain to relinquish that navigation. 
That rehnquishment would inevitably have taken place, 
had the consent of seven States been sufficient." 

He repeated the statement the next day and chal- 
lenged Madison to say whether or not it was true.. Sev- 
eral days afterwards (June 12), Madison replied, and 
his words had weight, for no one had done so much as 
he to keep the navigation of the river free. He showed 
how the State had itself once been willing to abandon it 
and had been opposed by Northern and Eastern States. 
Since the peace matters were somewhat reversed, and 
there were some members of Congress from Northern 
States who were willing to surrender the right of naviga- 
tion for a time in return for certain commercial advan- 
tages. He did not favour this, and he insisted that the 
adoption of the Constitution would be favourable to 
preserving the right of navigation. Emigration to the 
Western country would increase; it would be from the 
North as well as from the South and the advocates of 
free navigation would be more numerous. 

When Henry returned to the charge Madison said 
our weakness precluded any treaty, and that he honestly 
believed there would be better chances under the new than 
the old system. He then made the important disclosure 
of the actual state of affairs in Congress. Seven States 
were not now disposed to surrender the river. New 
Jersey had instructed her delegates not to surrender it, 
and Pennsylvania had the same sentiments. A few 
days later he brought the matter to a close. "Were I 
at liberty, " he said, " I would develop some circumstances 
which would convince this house that this project will 
never be revived in Congress, and that, therefore, no 
danger is to be apprehended." 

Henry denied that he was "scuffling for Kentucky 
votes," but his purpose was too apparent, and only 
failed because of Madison's bold statement, which led 
most of the Kentucky delegates to vote for ratification. 
It was carried June 25 by a vote of 89 to 79, the Con- 



LIFE OF JxVMES MADISON 155 

vention having been in session twenty-three days. The 
greatest orator of his time, the master who could sway 
Virginia audiences as no other man could, who had 
become habituated to success with them and had on 
this occasion exerted his marv^ellous powers as he had 
never exerted them before, had suffered defeat from a 
thin-voiced, feeble scholar who never aroused the enthu- 
siasm of an audience in his life. Henry neither forgot 
it nor forgave it, and we shall presently see how 
deeply he resented it. 



CHAPTER XVII 

NEW YORK AND VIRGINIA 

Before the Virginia Convention met, Cyrus Griffin, one 
of Madison's correspondents in New York where he was 
representing Virginia in Congress, summed up the chances 
of adoption of the Constitution, as they appeared to him 
(March 14, 1788): 

' 'The adjournment of New Hampshire, the small 
majority of Massachusetts, a certainty of rejection in 
Rhode Island, the formidable opposition in the State of 
New York, the convulsions and committee meetings in 
Pennsylvania, and above all the antipathy of Virginia to 
the system, operating together, I am apprehensive will 
prevent the noble fabric from being erected."* 

The friends of ratification in New York hung expect- 
antly upon the proceedings in Virginia. May 19, 1788, 
Hamilton reported to Madison that Clinton was in abso- 
lute control and "inflexibly obstinate," but his followers 
might be shaken if nine States ratified before New York 
acted. Hamilton declared he had positive information 
that Clinton had, on several occasions, expressed an 
opinion of the "inutility of the union. " It was a matter 
of vast importance that Virginia and New York should 
keep up "an exact communication," and the instant 
Virginia should take decisive action he wished Madison 
to send him the news by express, at all possible speed, 
changing horses. He would pay all expenses liberally, f 

The New York Convention to consider the question of 
ratification of the Constitution met at Poughkeepsie, 
June 17, 1788. According to Hamilton the Anti-Federal- 

* Dept. of State MSS. 
t Id. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 157 

ists had a majority of two-thirds in the Convention and 
four-sevenths in the State. The leaders were, he beHeved, 
Disunionists, but were afraid to reject the Constitution 
at once, as they were not prepared for the crisis. They, 
therefore, proposed a long adjournment, till the following 
spring or summer, which would give the State a chance 
to see how the new government worked. If all went 
smoothly New York would come into it; otherwise it 
would be easy to finally reject it, as the augmentation 
of taxes would be a fatal argument against it.* William 
Duer wrote, June 23, 1788: "If you adjourn without 
doing anything we will do the same, "f The next day 
an express arrived at Poughkeepsie conveying intelligence 
of New Hampshire's ratification, and this lent some 
encouragement to the Federalists, but Hamilton said 
it was "a gleam of hope" only if similar news came from 
Virginia. This arrived a few days later, and the pros- 
pects of the Federalists brightened. The opposition 
was unable to agree upon a programme, some being 
for amendments as a condition of ratification, and others 
for amendments as a condition of staying in the union. 
Hamilton asked Madison whether he thought a con- 
ditional ratification would be acceptable, and Madison 
replied that it would not. J A compromise was effected 
and ratification was finally forced through with a 
clause expressing "full confidence" that certain amend- 
ments would be accepted and proposing a second con- 
vention to formulate them. A circular by "unanimous 
order" was adopted to be sent to the other States, 
inviting their co-operation. North Carolina co-operated 
and remained out of the union for more than a year. 
Rhode Island also demanded the second convention, 
to revise a s /stem which she had never deigned to con- 
sider. The concurrent efforts of the Federalists in Vir- 
ginia and New York saved New York from rejecting the 

* Dept. of State MSS. 

tid. 

J Id. 



158 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

constitution, but the efforts of the Anti-Federalists of 
the two States, in the opposite direction, narrowly 
missed causing unfavourable action in Virginia. 

When the New York delegates to the Philadelphia 
Convention, Lansing and Yates, returned to their State 
in July they formed, with a number of other Anti-Fed- 
eralists, the Association of Federal Republicans, with 
General John Lamb, formerly of the Revolutionary 
Army, as chairman, the object being to open corres- 
pondence with the leading Anti-Federalists throughout 
the country, and concert measures to defeat the ratifi- 
cation of the Constitution; but although they began 
operations before the Constitution had issued forth from 
the Convention, a fatal procrastination or extraordi- 
nary coincidence of accidental delays characterized their 
subsequent movements and defeated their purpose. 
By the time they began correspondence several States 
had ratified the Constitution, and they concentrated 
their efforts upon New Hampshire, North Carolina, 
and Virginia, their chief strength lying, of course, in New 
York, the headquarters. 

Their correspondents in Virginia were Henry, Richard 
Henry Lee and Grayson, but letters to them did not 
arrive until the convention of ratification had been in 
session a week, and it was then too late to send and 
receive letters from New York before an adjournment 
would take place.* 

It will be recalled that before the Convention met 
Henry carried a motion in the Assembly to pay the 
expenses of a delegation, if one should be deemed ad- 
visable, to consult with the other States on the subject 
of amendments to be proposed to the Constitution. A 
copy of this resolution Edmund Randolph, as Governor, 
transmitted to Governor Clinton in a letter dated De- 
cember 27, 1787, but strange to say it did not reach 
Clinton till March 7, 1788. The Legislature was then 
about to adjourn and consequently took no action, and 

* See Leake's " Life of General John Lamb, " 305, et seq. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 159 

Clinton replied to Randolph explaining this fact, but 
added that the State Convention called for June 17 
would be glad to hold communication with Virginia 
as to the subject of the letter. If Clinton's letter was 
unofficial, then Randolph, who was a supporter of rati- 
fication when he received it, was not boimd to use it. 
If it was official his duty was to present it to the Leg- 
islature by which it could be sent to the Convention. He 
took the advice of his council which decided that it was 
official. The General Assembly of the State obtained 
a quorum June 24, and the letter was laid before it, but 
it was unnoticed till the following day, after the final 
vote in favour of ratification had been taken in the Con- 
vention. Had it been in Henry's hands before that time 
it would have been a powerful, though not necessarily 
a successful argument, at any rate for delay. How 
Randolph's letter of December 27 was so long in reaching 
New York is only explicable on the supposition that it was 
the victim of the uncertain mails of the time, not having 
been sent by express or private conveyance, the usual 
means employed in communications of importance. 

The Constitution having been adopted by the Con- 
vention June 26, Henry did not abandon his fight against 
it. Soon after the adjournment Madison was re-elected 
a member of the Continental Congress by the General 
Assembly and departed for New York. Why was this 
honour conferred without Henry's opposition by a body 
over which he held all-powerful sway? Perhaps he was 
indifferent, perhaps he did not venture to oppose himself 
to the strong sentiment in Madison's favour, but rumour 
had it that he was actuated by less worthy motives. 
"I do verily believe," wrote Turberville to Madison, 
November 13, 1788, — "I do verily believe that Mr. 
Henry voted for you to Congress this time with no other 
view but to keep you from (your) country until some 
more favour'd man, some minion of his or of his party 
shall have had an opportunity to supplant y"^ interest." * 

* N. Y. Public Library (Lenox) MSS. 



i6o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

It is not necessary to believe this, but it was, undoubt- 
edly, a great convenience to Henry to have Madison out 
of the way while he played his game. The opening for 
the first move was afforded by the New York circular 
inviting co-operation for a second Federal Convention 
to propose amendments to the Constitution. George 
Nicholas and Marshall were busy practising their pro- 
fession, Pendleton and Wythe had returned to their 
duties on the bench, Henry Lee was with Madison in 
New York, and Randolph was not regarded with much 
fear by the Anti-Federalists or with much confidence by 
the Federalists. Corbin alone of the leading Federal- 
ists in the Convention was in the Legislature, and Henry 
had on his side Grayson, Monroe and Harrison. "I am 
under painful apprehension," wrote Washington to 
Madison, September 21, 1788, "from the single circum- 
stance of ]\Ir. Henry having the whole game to play 
in the Assembly of this State. " It was believed that, as 
Randolph had originally favoured a second Convention, 
he would be selected to now bring the proposition for- 
ward. Francis Corbin wrote to Madison, October 21, 
1788: 

"He will injure his political Reputation by his doub- 
lings and turnings. He is too Machiavellian and not 
Machiavellian Enough — I wish, I sincerely wish, he would 
be advised and would take advice — but this, I fear, is out 
of the question. We Virginians are too much accustomed 
to solitude and slavery — too much puff 'd up with our own 
foolish pride and vanity ever to entertain any other idea 
than that we alone are wise and all the rest of the world 
Fools."* 

Carrington, writing about the same time, said the 
Governor was in favour of the second Convention, 
and would come into the Assembly; but he was 
mistaken, for Randolph did not come into the 
Assembly and under no circumstances would he have 
introduced such insidious resolutions as Henry drew up. 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON i6r 

Henry brought them in himself on October 27, They 
set forth that " Alany of the great, essential, and unalien- 
able rights of freemen, if not cancelled^, were rendered 
insecure under the Constitution," and in order to 
quiet the people and prevent "those disorders which must 
arise under a government not foimded in the confidence of 
the people," application should be made to the new 
Congress, as soon as it should assemble, "to call a second 
convention for proposing amendments to it." A sub- 
stitute providing that Congress should itself be asked to 
propose the amendments in the regular course was voted 
down by 85 to 39 — more than two to one. Henry, as chair- 
man of the committee appointed for the purpose, drew up 
the address to the other States transmitting the resolu- 
tion and it was adopted by a vote of 72 to 50. Corbin, 
Richard Bland Lee, afterwards a ^lember of Congress 
of some prominence, Zachariah Johnson and Turber- 
ville led a hopeless minority and realized that they were 
overmatched. "Would to Heaven you were here," 
wrote Turberv^lle to Madison the day the resolutions 
were introduced; and later (November 10) he wrote: " It 
would glad my very soul to see you in this city before the 
session rises — your very presence would sink into 
nonentity almost — those aspiring assassins who now 
triumphing in their calumnies of absent characters, have 
belittled themselves even in the estimation of their 
adherents."* 

In the hands of an Anti-Federalist representation in 
the first congress Henry's resolutions could cause the new 
Constitution to commit suicide at the outset, Madison 
said. Henry's next move was to endeavour to secure 
such a representation. 

Edward Carrington paid a visit to Washington in the 
autumn of 1788, and reported to Madison (October 19) 
that he fotmd the General much alarmed over the prob- 
ability that Anti-Federalists would represent the State 
in the first Senate. Henry and Richard Henry Lee would 

* N. Y. Public Librar>' (Lenox) MSS. 



i62 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

stand for election, he presumed, and as it would be im- 
possible to exclude the former, Lee would be carried 
through by his influence, " Unless a Federalist very well 
established in the confidence of the people can be opposed. 
He is decided in his wishes that you may be brought 
forward on this occasion."* Madison's own preference 
was for an election to the House, but when Carrington 
mentioned this Washington expressed the opinion that 
Madison could be more useful in the Senate, as there 
would be much depending on that branch unconnected 
with the other. Carrington himself said (October 22), 
that it would be idle to bring forward any other Federal- 
ist than Madison. The other candidates were Grayson 
(in place of Henry who refused to serve) and Richard 
Henry Lee, and they were elected by a few votes only, 
many delegates who had voted with Henry voting now 
for Madison. The vote stood 98 for Lee, 86 for Grayson 
and 77 for Madison. Madison's friends declared that his 
strength had grown up to the day of the balloting and that 
if the election could have been postponed for a few days 
longer he would have won.f His defeat was due to the 
opposition of one man and that man held the Legislature 
in the hollow of his hand. Henry Lee wrote (Alexandria, 
November 19, 1788) : " Mr. Henry on the floor exclaimed 
against your political character, and pronounced you 
unworthy of the confidence of the people in the station of 
Senator. That your election would terminate in produc- 
ing rivulets of blood throughout the land. "J A cruelly 
false rumour spread that he advocated a surrender 
of the Mississippi; it originated in a remark of Grayson's 
which was misinterpreted. Another false report was 
that he was opposed to amendments to the Constitution 
under any circumstances, and this was generally believed 
because it originated with Henry, although Madison took 

*Dept. of State MSS. 

t Turberville to Madison, Nov. 10, 1788, N. Y. Public Library 
(Lenox) MSS. 

t Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 163 

the trouble to write and contradict it. The day after 
the election Theodorick Bland congratulated Lee on his 
triumph over the " non-emendatorys. "* Madison's defeat 
was taken much to heart by his friends. Henry Lee 
wrote that his wife shared his mortification, and Rev. 
James Madison said he felt it sensibly. Whatever dis- 
appointment I\Iadison himself felt he did not disclose, 
and it may be doubted whether he ever expected to 
succeed, for he had in estimating political probabilities 
a perfectly impartial temperament uninfluenced by his 
personal desires. Even in the Virginia Convention, 
when he was in the thickest of the fight, he was able to 
go to his room and write letters to Washington estimating 
the chances of ratification as impersonally as if he had 
been a mere looker on. 

Having defeated him for the Senate, Henry tried to 
prevent his election to the House. "The object, " wrote 
Turberville, November 13, "of the majority of to-day 
has been to prevent y"" election in the House of Rep- 
resentatives as demonstrably as if they had affirmed it— 
-first, by forming a district (as they supposed) of counties 
most tainted by Anti-Federalism in which Orange is 
situated — & then by confining the choice of the people 
to the residents in the particular districts— Mr. Henry 
without argument— or answering a single reason urged 
ag^ it— launched into a field of Declamation— brought 
all the imaginary horrors of the new government upon 
us — & carried a decided and large majority with him — 
how unfortunate is it for Virginia that you are not on the 
floor with us. "t 

The district thus formed comprised seven counties 
besides Orange and the delegates from five of these 
had voted against ratification in the recent convention, 
while the sixth had divided its vote. There would then, 
apparently, be little probability of I\Iadison's election 
from his own district, while the law for the first time 

*Bland to R. H. Lee, Nov. 9, 17S8. Lee MSS., University of Va. 
t N. Y. Public Library (Lenox) MSS. 



1 64 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

forbade a candidate from seeking an election in any other 
district than that in which he lived. This was so radical 
a departure from the established custom that its con- 
stitutionality was not believed in, and several other dis- 
tricts offered to place Madison in nomination, He de- 
cided, however, to stand in his own county. James 
Monroe was selected as his opponent. "Let me apprize 
you," wrote Carrington, November i8, 1788, "that you 
are upon no occasion of a public nature to expect favours 
from this gentleman,"* 

The contest was, however, a perfectly friendly one. 
Madison first met Monroe at Richmond in 1782, and they 
served in the Congress together. Until the question of 
the adoption of the Constitution arose their political 
views had harmonized, and their personal friendship had 
become permanent. Monroe's opposition to the Con- 
stitution had at first not been pronounced, but he w^as 
now distinctly of the Anti-Federal party. 

That party, however, was not in the ascendancy 
throughout the State. The Legislature was a body 
to register Henry's will, but the voters were more inde- 
pendent. Although George Mason thought Monroe 
would defeat Madison, others who made a closer study of 
the situation said the district was probably Federal, 
and that Madison could carry it if he conducted an 
active campaign in person. Monroe wrote "hundreds of 
letters," and Henry's statement that Madison had said 
not a letter of the constitution could be altered was freely 
repeated to Madison's detriment.! George Nicholas 
advised him to issue a statement defining his position 
on this subject, but he declined to do it. That he should 
be elected was looked upon as all-important by his friends, 
as the other States would take his defeat as an indica- 
tion of hostility to the Constitution on the part of Vir- 
ginia. 

* Dept. of State MSS. 

t Turberville to Madison, Dec. 14, 1788, N. Y. Public Library (Lenox) 
MSS. 



L ^ / 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 165 

Madison reached Virginia in the dead of the winter, 
the election being ordered for February 2, and made a 
tour of his district addressing the people, he and Monroe 
often engaging in joint debate. In his old age he de- 
scribed one of the meetings to his friend N. P. Trist: 

"We used to meet in days of considerable excitement 
and address the people on our respective sides ; but there 
never was an atom of ill-will between us. On> one occa- 
sion we met at a church up here (pointing toward the 
Northwest). There was a nest of Dutchmen in that 
quarter, who generally went together, and whose vote might 
very probably turn the scale. We met there at church. 
Service was performed, and then they had music with 
two fiddles. They are remarkably fond of music. When 
it was all over we addressed these people, and kept 
them standing in the snow hstening to the discussion 
of constitutional subjects. They stood it out very 
patiently — seemed to consider it a sort of fight of which 
they were required to be spectators. I then had to ride 
in the night, twelve miles to quarters ; and got my nose 
frost-bitten, of which I bear the mark now (touching 
the end of his nose on the left side)." 

This injury he used to point to humorously as the scar 
of a wound received in battle for his country. 

Henry's invention of districting a State for partisan 
purposes has since been often imitated. It received the 
name of Gerrymander in 181 2, when Gilbert Stuart 
drew his grotesque map of Massachusetts showing how 
the districts were marked off when Elbridge Gerry was 
Governor. It failed its inventor, however, miserably, 
for Madison was elected over Monroe by a considerable 
majority, and seven out of nine of his colleagues were 
also Federalists. There was great joy among the friends 
of the Constitution, for now it would start fair in the hands 
of its friends. Rev. James Madison, in sending his 
congratulations and sympathetic encouragement to his 
kinsman and namesake, indulged himself in a forecast 
of the coming grandeur of the country which had the 



i66 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

inspiration of true prophecy. "If they [the laws to be 
enacted] sh'^ fortunately, as I trust they wih, have the 
evident stamp of wisdom and of Justice, they may 
gradually eradicate opposition, and then in its stead es- 
tablish in ye affections of the people, ye strongest attach- 
ment to ye General Gov^ and perhaps within ye Period 
of one Century, ye World may see a Republic com- 
posed of at least sixty mihions of free men — for such will 
be the Population of America within that Time, pro- 
vided it continues nearly at ye rate it hath hitherto 
observed — The only Chain by which such a mviltitude 
will be bound together is that of wise and just Laws. 
May your Beginning promise such a Blessing." 

But in the midst of the triumphant tone sounded 
by the letters of the Federalists were a number asking 
Madison's influence with the new Government to procure 
offices for the writers. In the Constitutional Convention 
neither he nor any other member foresaw that the un- 
checked distribution of the lesser offices of Government 
would prove a greater and more enduring evil than any 
other that the Government under the Constitution 
could be called upon to withstand. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE LEADER OF THE HOUSE 

All the time the Convention was sitting in Philadel- 
phia framing a new charter of government, the Congress 
provided for under the old charter was in session in New 
York. Many members were absent, being delegates to 
both bodies, but routine business was transacted. The 
attendance was so light that the Secretary was ordered 
to write to the Governors of the States and ask them 
to urge the representatives to attend, as important busi- 
ness was to be transacted. The report from Philadelphia 
might arrive at any moment, but there were fewer mem- 
bers present every day. Sometimes there was a quorum ; 
sometimes only six States were represented, sometimes 
only five, sometimes only two.* 

On September 28 the report from the Constitutional 
Convention was read. It submitted the Constitution 
of the United States and requested that it be sent to the 
several State Executives to be by them submitted "to a 
convention of delegates, chosen in each State by the 
people thereof, under the recommendation of its Legis- 
lature, for their assent and ratification ; and that each con- 
vention assenting to and ratifying the same, should give 
notice thereof in Congress assembled." 

If nine States ratified it, Congress was to name a day for 
the inauguration of the new Government. 

Richard Henry Lee, in the ardour of his opposition, 
offered sundry amendments to the Constitution, hoping 
that they would be considered by Congress, and those 
that were agreed to submitted with the Constitution to the 

* Journals of Congress (Ed., 1801) XII, 53, ei seq. 

167 



i68 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

several States. This effort to prejudice and embarrass 
the verdict in the States was not unexpected, and was 
met with so general an opposition that he abandoned it, 
the amendments being neither considered nor entered 
upon the journal. By a unanimous vote the course 
recommended by the Convention was followed,* but 
beyond this Congress would not go, and Lee was able 
to boast that there was "a bare transmission of the Con- 
vention plan, without a syllable of approbation, or dis- 
approbation on the part of Congress." 

On October 8 Madison returned from Philadelphia and 
took his seat. He found the attendance so thin that 
he doubted whether there ever would be a quorum again. 
February 25 Alexander Hamilton joined him as a mem- 
ber for a brief period, and they were the only men of note 
in the Congress. In the spring both left and ]\Iadison 
went to Virginia to be present at the elections for the 
first House of Representatives. In July he came back. 
The congress languished during the simimer and the light 
of its life feebly flickered in the autumn. November 3 
only two members attended. November 15 Cyrus 
Griffin of Virginia was the only member present; from 
then on a few members would have their names recorded 
as present each day. On March 2 Philip Pell of New York 
attended alone, and the Congress was dead. It never 
adjourned, and had no formal dissolution. The faithful 
Secretary, Charles Thomson, wrote the last entry in the 
Journal, and he and the forgotten Mr. Pell were the sole 
spectators of the end.f People had forgotten that the 
Congress still lingered, for attention was concentrated 
upon the new Congress called to meet March 4th. 

To appreciate the importance of this, the first session 
of the first Congress, it is only necessary to reflect upon 
the force of precedence in the affairs of men and especially 
in government affairs. How the new Government was 
started would determine how it would be conducted for 

* Journals of Congress (Ed., iSoi) XII, no, ct seq. 
t Id., XIII, 193. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 169 

years to come, and its duration would be influenced 
by the trend it received in the beginning. Serious 
blunders would be costly indeed, for they might cause the 
experiment to end quickly or even violently. 

The first communication received by the Senate from 
the House of Representatives was delivered by Madison, 
and stated that the House had agreed that the Senate 
should notify the President and Vice-President of their 
election. The day before, April 6, the arrival of Rich- 
ard Henry Lee, Madison's successful rival for Senatorial 
honours, had made a quorum.* Yet in the next five years, 
until 1794 when the Senate ceased to sit in secret session, 
that august chamber was as silent as the grave, exerting 
little influence upon the people, and those who served 
in it were buried from pubHc sight, while the public 
interest was entirely in the House. In preventing Madi- 
son from being a Senator, Patrick Henry had unwittingly 
placed the man whom he dreaded in a position of 
real power. 

The House had secured a quorum five days before the 
Senate and on April 2 named its first committee, that 
on rules, with Madison as a member. On April 8 the House 
resolved itself into Committee of the Whole on the state 
of the Union, and the first member to address the chair 
was Madison. His programme for the work of the body 
of which he was the undisputed leader included three 
things of pressing necessity: to provide revenue with 
which to run the Government, to create the necessary 
executive machinery, and to submit amendments to the 
Constitution which would unite the people in its support 
by satisfying the most serious objections which had 
been made to it. 

The revenue bill which he introduced took as a system 
ready at hand, which could be quickly passed, the old 
impost meastire of 1783, which had already been fully 
discussed and generally acquiesced in.f It contemplated 

* Annals of Congress, ist Cong., iS. 
t Rives III, 193, et seq. 



lyo LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

specific duties on importations of liquors, molasses, 
wines, tea, pepper, sugar, cocoa, and coffee, and ad 
valorem duties on all other articles. He added to the 
bill three paragraphs providing for discriminating ton- 
nage dues on shipping, — a low rate for ships built and 
owned in the United States, a higher rate for ships be- 
longing to the subjects of Powers with which we had 
treaties of commerce and a still higher rate for ships 
belonging to the subjects of Powers with which we had 
no treaties. 

The day after he presented his bill, (April 9), Fitz- 
simmons of Pennsylvania moved to add a few man- 
ufactured articles for specific duties, and Hartley of the 
same State in supporting his colleague said the object 
was to encourage home manufactures, which had spiimg 
up since 1783 and were rapidly increasing.* To this 
encouragement ]\Iadison did not object. In the Con- 
stitutional Convention, in discussing the question of 
export duties, he said they might be necessary, "and 
for the same purposes as the regulation of imports, viz: 
for revenue, domestic manufactures, and providing equit- 
able regulations from other nations." He now stated 
his position more fully on this subject and did not, in 
fact, deviate from it afterwards. "I own myself the 
friend," he declared, "to a very free system of com- 
merce, and hold it as a truth, that commercial shackles 
are generally unjust, oppressive, and impolitic ; it is also 
a truth, that if industry and labour are left to take their 
own course, they will generally be directed to those 
objects which are the most productive, and this in a 
more certain and direct manner than the wisdom of the 
most enlightened Legislature could point out." There 
could be no profit, he said, in a man furnishing himself 
with everything he needed; he exchanged with other 
men. In the same way town and country exchanged 
their products to mutual advantage, and one part of a 
country with another, and one nation with another. 

* Annals of Congress, ist Cong., 105, et seq. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 171 

Some manufactures would spring up naturally; there 
were others already established with State assistance, 
which ought not to be allowed to perish for want of a 
continuance of protection under the new Government, 
and he was willing to make them an exception to his 
general rule. An embargo in time of war was another 
exception which required no defence. The argument 
that a country should produce everything it needed, so 
as to be independent in time of war, was, he thought, 
overdrawn. We were now a nation, and could obtain 
supplies abroad when we needed them. But a discrim- 
inating tonnage tax was a different matter, because other 
nations discriminated against us, and if we treated all 
equally we were in effect discriminating against our own 
ships. Incidentally, we should encourage means of 
transportation, and enlarge our markets.* 

Two days after this speech, i\pril it. Smith of Mary- 
land presented a petition from tradesmen, manufac- 
turers and others in Baltimore, reciting the prevailing 
poverty, and praying that duties be laid on all foreign 
articles that could be made in this country, so as to give 
a preference to American labour, f Several other peti- 
tions of similar purport followed. Fisher Ames of 
Massachusetts introduced into Madison's schedule wool 
cards, because they were "manufactured to the eastward 
as good and cheap as the imported ones. "J A few 
days later Clymer of Pennsylvania showed how a steel 
furnace was in progress in Philadelphia, and with a 
little aid from the Legislature had made three hundred 
tons of steel in two years and now made two hundred 
and thirty tons annually; with further encouragement 
it would supply the American market.^ Steel was then 
put in the schedule without serious opposition. Theo- 
dorick Bland, an extreme Anti-Federalist, objected, be- 

* Annals of Congress, ist Cong., 210, et seq. 
t Id., 115, 
% Id., 124. 
t Id., 148. 



172 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

cause "then certainly you lay a tax on the whole com- 
munity, in order to put the money in the pockets of a 
few, whenever you burden the importation with a heavy 
impost. "* 

He did not raise the Constitutional argimient against 
protective duties, nor was it heard at this session of Con- 
gress, although eight of the fifty-nine members had 
served in the Constitutional Convention. The debate 
finally centred about the items in the schedule laying 
a duty on rum and molasses from which rum is made. 
Madison desired to avoid an excise tax, which he knew 
would be unpopular, and yet indirectly collect it by a 
duty on molasses, and a higher duty on rum, of which 
a great deal was imported from the West Indies, the 
difference in duty being intended as a protection to the 
American rum manufacturer.! Massachusetts in par- 
ticular, and New England generally, vigorously resisted 
the proposition. Goodhue of Massachusetts said rum 
was a necessity of life among the poorer classes. To 
make it Massachusetts imported from 30,000 to 40,000 
hogsheads of molasses annually. Ames said the tax 
would be paid almost exclusively by Massachusetts. J 

April 21 Madison's proposition for discriminating 
tonnage dues came up, and he explained its provisions.^ 
The tax was intended for political purposes primarily ; it 
was a revenue measure only incidentally. The com- 
merce between Great Britain and America was much 
greater than that between America and all other coun- 
tries. The actual figures as furnished by the Treasury 
Department nine months later (December, 1790,) |1 
showed that from 1789 to October, 1790, about 766,000 
tons of shipping paid tonnage dues, of which the United 
States had, including vessels in the coastwise trade, five 
hundred and eight and eight-tenths thousand and Great 

* Annals of Congress, ist Cong., i68. 

t Id., 129. 
tid., 13S. 
fid., 181. 
II Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 173 

Britain two hundred and fifty-five and two-tenths, the 
other nations having an insignificant amoiint, France lead- 
ing with thirteen and four-tenths. The American tonnage 
was thus nearly two-thirds of the whole, the British 
nearly one-third, and the rest about one-twentieth. 
This made the British six times as great as all 
the rest of the foreign tonnage, yet Great Britain utterly 
refused to negotiate a commercial treaty with us. An 
advantage over Great Britain, Madison agreed, should 
be given to those countries with which we had treaties, 
notably France. Perhaps Great Britain would then 
come to terms. At any rate the deplorably one-sided 
conditions in force should be stopped. American ships 
were absolutely excluded from British West Indian 
ports, and into other British ports they might enter 
only if they carried nothing but American products, and 
yet British ships entered our ports on an equality with 
American ships and might carry the products of the 
world. Madison declared he believed in freedom of 
commerce, but when it had, by force of circumstances, 
fallen into the hands of one country, artificial measures 
were necessary to place it where it naturally belonged, 
and he wished to see our shipping increase, furnishing 
a nursery for seamen and a foundation for an American 
navy. Discriminating duties, he declared, were a great 
power, which ought to be invoked in the beginning. If 
the experiment could be tried without injustice, he 
would Hke to see the importation of West Indian rum 
forbidden until we should be allowed to carry to the 
West Indies, in our own vessels, the produce which 
necessity obhged the West Indies to take from us. He 
would have the Government show the power and the 
will to injure, and thereby compel foreign nations to 
treat us with that respect which our former feebleness 
had failed to command. He would tax brandy lightly 
because it came from France, with which nation we had 
a treaty, and would prepare for a commercial war with 
Great Britain. Otherwise she would shut us out com- 



174 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

pletely from her ports and make us tributary to her. 
"The produce of this country," he said, "is more neces- 
sary to the rest of the world than that of other coimtries 
is to America. If we were disposed to hazard the exper- 
iment of interdicting the intercourse between us and 
the Powers not in alHance, we should have overtures 
of the most advantageous kind tendered by those na- 
tions. "* 

His theory of government was thus made plain 
enough. By a system of commercial retaliation and 
reciprocity he would render the probability of war as 
remote as possible. He did not succeed in his pro- 
gramme. The impost measure was passed and became 
a law, but the Senate rejected the discriminating ton- 
nage dues, and the House was compelled to yield in 
conference. 

The revenue bill being out of the way Madison intro- 
duced resolutions to establish three executive depart- 
ments of the Government, — Foreign Affairs, Treasury, 
and Vv^ar, — the Secretary of each to be removable by 
the President.! The interest of the debate was on the 
question of removability. There being no word of 
guidance in the Constitution, four theories were ad- 
vanced: (i) that Congress had the power to confer 
the right of removal upon the President, (2) that a re- 
moval could be accomplished only by impeachment pro- 
ceedings, (3) that the Senate must advise and consent 
to a removal, as it was required to do to an appointment, 
and (4) that the President already had the power of 
removal. The convention that framed the Constitution 
had never considered the question. The founders of 
the Government believed that those who filled executive 
offices would constitute a set of permanent officials, not 
changing as the President changed. Madison thought 
the President should have the power and responsibility 
of removals, and that the Senate should have as little 

* Annals of Congress, 1st Cong., 204, ct seq. 
t Id., 368, et seq. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 175 

agency in executive matters as possible. The President 
would, he said, be restrained from removing worthy 
officials by fear of the pubHc odium he would incur, by 
the restriction on fihing their places which the Senate 
would exert, and by his own impeachability for mis- 
conduct. An unjust removal would constitute such 
misconduct in ]\Iadison's opinion.* No one then foresaw 
that under the third administration of the Government 
the party to which Madison belonged would be clamouring 
for the removal from office of those who belonged to the 
opposite party, and that no serious obstacles would lie in 
the way of the use of the public offices as spoils of party 
warfare. Had the framers of the Constitution con- 
ceived such a condition of affairs to be possible they 
would have devised measures to prevent it, and the 
opponents of the adoption of the Constitution, if they 
had foreseen it, would not have overlooked the omission 
in their arguments against the Constitution. The 
spoils system was an unthought of evil when Madison 
introduced his strengthening amendments to the Con- 
stitution in the first Congress, 
f On May 4, ]\Iadison gave notice that he would soon 
bring up the subject of these amendments,! but when 
he introduced them on June 8 there was strong opposi- 
tion to considering them, until the Government should 
be more thoroughly organized. He admitted the rea- 
sonableness of the objection, so far as it applied to tak- 
ing action on the amendments, but insisted upon the 
importance of putting them before the House and the 
people at once. He would have preferred their con- 
sideration as the first business of Congress, because then 
its other measures would have been more generously 
supported. He wished to make friends for the new 
Government, disarm the opposition in North Carolina 

*"Tlie Department of State; its History and Functions" (1893) 
44, et seq. Madison to Randolph, June 17, 1789, "Works" (Cong. Ed.) 

1,476. 

•j- Annals of Congress, ist Cong., 247, e/ seq. 



176 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

and Rhode Island, and bring those States into the Union. 
Only eleven States had ratified the Constitution, and 
five of these — Massachusetts, South Carolina, New Hamp- 
shire, Virginia and New York — had expressed in their 
acts of ratification a desire for amendments and a confi- 
dence that they would be made. North Carolina had 
refused to ratify until the amendments were made. Not 
only, therefore, was the Union incomplete, but in every 
State which had ratified the Constitution there was a 
hostile minority and in some States its proportions were 
considerable. He himself thought amendments providing 
for greater security of rights could be engrafted upon 
the Constitution without marring it. Above all things 
it was necessary that it should have behind it a people 
united in its support. Many people, he said, opposed 
it because the President had no council, because the 
Senate had judicial power in impeachment trials and 
was in other respects so powerful, and because generally 
the Federal Government had taken too much authority 
from the States. These objections were ill-founded 
and he would not yield to them. In meeting others 
which appeared to him to rest upon a valid foundation 
he considered that he would fulfil a tacit promise made 
to the ratifying conventions by the friends of the Con- 
stitution that amendments would be offered. He, 
therefore, proposed nine, each one of which he said 
was proper in itself, or because there was a wide popular 
demand for it. These amendments included the less 
radical propositions of the five ratifying States which 
had demanded amendments. Two of them were not 
adopted by the Legislatures of two-thirds of the States 
— that requiring a greater representation in the House, 
and that forbidding an increase by an}^ Congress of its 
own emoluments. His proposed amendment forbidding 
an appeal to the Supreme Court in suits involving less 
than a certain sum of money and requiring that a fact 
triable by jury, according to common law, should not 
be otherwise examined into, was thrown out by the 



LIFE OP JAMES MADISON 177 

Senate. His other amendments, guaranteeing religious 
freedom, freedom of the press, the right of bearing arms, 
trial by jury, etc., freedom from unreasonable search, 
from the quartering of troops in time of peace, from 
excessive bail, and reserving to the States and the people 
powers not granted by the Constitution, were agreed 
to by Congress, submitted to the States, and incorpor- 
ated into the fundamental law. 

During the debate on the amendments some members 
privately discussed a project for repealing the Constitu- 
tion and adopting an improved one, but there were only 
a few opponents of the Constitution in Congress, the 
real strength of the party lying within the States, where 
they were hatching measures to destroy the new system 
of government before it could well get into operation. 
The Virginia Legislature at Patrick Henry's instance 
called upon the other States to join in demanding a 
second convention to consider amendments, and the 
day after Madison's notice that he would introduce 
amendments to Congress (May 5) Bland presented the 
Virginia petition asking for the convention and moved 
its reference to the Committee of the Whole. Boudinot 
of New Jersey, supported by Madison, raised the point 
that, as the Constitution provided that amendments 
must originate in Congress or be requested by two- 
thirds of the States, the House could not properly con- 
sider one petition. Bland was forced to acquiesce and 
to content himself with simply having the petition en- 
tered upon the Journal.* 

Madison's prompt action in favour of amendments 
was received with great favour in Virginia where it re- 
duced opposition to the Constitution to a single point, 
that of the power of laying direct taxes ; and Henry Lee 
warned Madison that it would not be safe to exercise 
this power. Before the amendments were offered the 
opposition had been so radical that there were murmur- 
ings against Grayson, Bland and other Anti-Pederalists 

* Annals of Congress, ist Cong., 2515. 



178 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

in Congress for permitting anything to be done in ad- 
vance of the desired amendments.* In North Carolina, 
also, the effect was excellent, and gave the needed 
strength to the Federalists in the new convention! called 
for November, 1789, when the Constitution was ratified 
and North Carolina joined the rest of the States, instead 
of attracting some of them to leave the Union and join 
her, which at one time seemed possible. The appear- 
ance of the amendments killed beyond hope of resuscita- 
tion the efforts to secure the second Constitutional Con- 
vention, ostensibly to improve the work of the first, but 
in reality to undo it. Those who favoured it were Patrick 
Henry, George Clinton and other opponents of the adop- 
tion of the Constitution, but New York alone responded 
favourably to the Virginia invitation. The Virginia 
Legislature of 1790 had as members Edmund Randolph, 
Henry Lee and John Marshall, and was no longer a body 
to register Patrick Henry's will. J He realized that 
the Constitution which he had opposed so bitterly was 
now too strongly intrenched to yield to attack. Accord- 
ingly he left the field to the victors and soon afterwards 
changed his own position completely, becoming in the 
closing years of his life as extreme a consolidationist as 
he had in the trying period of the adoption of the Con- 
stitution been an advocate of State sovereignty. 

* Dept. of State MSS. 

t Id., W. R. Davie to Madison, June lo, 1789. 

j See Henry's "Life of Patrick Henry. " 



CHAPTER XIX 
"funding and assumption" 

August 28, 1789, a memorial and petition from public 
creditors in Pennsylvania praying that provision be 
made for the public debt was presented to Congress and 
referred to a committee of which Madison was chairman. 
September 10, he reported that it highly concerned the 
honour and integrity of the United States to make an 
early provision in favour of the creditors of the Union, 
and that the House ought to take the subject up early 
at its next session. September 21, the Secretary of the 
Treasury was requested to prepare a plan for supporting 
the public credit. The next session began January 4, 
and on January 14 Alexander Hamilton's great report 
was received. It treated the subject exhaustively and 
with consummate power. It recommended the funding 
of the domestic debt and the acceptance of the certifi- 
cates of indebtedness issued by the old Government from 
those who held them, without reference to any equitable 
rights in their increased value by those to whom they 
had originally been issued and who had parted with 
them. The report provided for the assumption by the 
Federal Government of the debts contracted by the 
States during the Revolutionary War. A well-funded 
national debt was described as a desirable asset to gov- 
ernment, as it served most of the purposes of money 
in exchanges and was an addition to the active capital 
of the nation. It had in addition a political virtue as 
its tendency was "to cement more closely the Union 
of the States. " 

The debt of the United States comprised the foreign 
debt, which with interest amounted to nearly $12,000,- 

179 



i8o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

ooo; the liquidated domestic debt, being certificates of 
indebtedness for services rendered, money loaned and 
supplies furnished during the war, amounting to about 
$40,000,000; and the unliquidated domestic debt made 
up of Continental bills of credit, which at the rate of 
exchange agreed upon by Congress (40 to i) amounted 
to $2,000,000 more; the whole debt being about $54,000,- 
000. The State debts to be assumed were estimated 
at $25,000,000 principal and interest. On the subject 
of the foreign debt there was no difference of opinion. 
It should be paid according to agreement, and provision 
for that purpose was in due season passed by a unani- 
mous vote. But the question of the domestic debt al- 
lowed for a wide difference of opinion. The disordered 
condition of the national finances had offered a fine field 
for speculation, and the certificates issued by the old 
Congress had been bought and sold upon a speculative 
basis. If Hamilton's plan was adopted these certificates 
and the evidences of State indebtedness would be worth 
more than they had ever been before, and there was 
consequently a rush to buy them from those who, be- 
cause of their distance from New York, were ignorant 
of the prospects of their enhanced value. When Ham- 
ilton's report came up for debate January 28, Jackson 
of Georgia said: 

"Since this report has been read in this House a spirit 
of havoc, speculation and ruin has arisen, and been 
cherished by people who had an access to the informa- 
tion [by living at the capital] the report contained that 
would have made a Hastings blush to have been con- 
nected with, though long inured to preying on the vitals 
of his fellowmen. Three vessels. Sir, have sailed within 
a fortnight from this port, freighted for speculation; 
they are intended to purchase up the State and other 
securities in the hands of the uninformed though honest 
citizens of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. "* 

There was no denial of the charge. Boudinot ad- 

* Annals of Congress, ist. Cong., 1223, et seq. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON i8i 

mitted that "speculation had risen to an alarming 
height," and it was believed that some Members of Con- 
gress were themselves speculating in the probable rise 
of the value of certificates. Madison himself, who was 
slow to attribute corruption to others, believed that 
such was the case. 

On February 1 1 he made a speech defining his position. 
He said the domestic debt was a supreme obligation 
upon the new Government which took upon itself the full 
responsibility for all acts of the old Government. The 
only question was to whom the payment was due. There 
were the original creditors who had never alienated 
their securities, the present holders of these securities, 
and the intermediate holders through whose hands the 
securities had passed. The last named he would not 
consider, as it would be impossible to determine who 
they were and how much they had lost; moreover, they 
had acquired and parted with the securities on their 
own responsibility and gained by the speculation. The 
two classes of real concern were the original and the 
present holders. The former had never been paid the 
value of their service or of the property advanced by 
them. The certificates were forced upon them, and 
they were compelled to accept them without regard to 
their depreciation. We must, however, admit the claims 
of the holders of the certificates. But it would ob- 
viously be unfair to pay both the original and present 
holders, so he would pay the present holders the highest 
market price and the balance between this amount and 
the face value of the certificates he would pay to the 
original holders. This was a simple scheme. It would 
only be necessary to know who the present holders of 
the certificates were, and who were the original holders, 
which the office documents would show. 

In taking this ground he was compelled to defend 
himself against the charge of inconsistency, for in 1783, 
in the address to the States on the funding of the debt, 
he had rejected any distinction between original and 



i82 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

purchasing holders of pubHc securities, but he insisted 
that at that time the transfers had been confined to one 
Hmited class of certificates and that the original holders 
had suffered little loss. It was a different proposition 
when the transferred certificates were a large proportion 
of the whole debt and the loss to the original holders 
had been enormous. 

Boudinot replied with a few facts which really de- 
molished Madison's argument. He said that when a 
man parted with his certificate he put another 
man in his shoes, and there was no reason why the Gov- 
ernment should disown the act of the party himself. 
Logically carried out, Madison's plan would compel the 
Government to go back and compensate all who had 
received Continental money and parted with it for less 
than it was now worth. Moreover, the plan was im- 
possible of execution as the issuing office did not have 
all the names of the persons for whom the certificates 
were really issued. For convenience they had frequently 
been made out in the names of people who got them for 
others. Many of them were thus issued in the 
names of the clerks in the loan office, and it often 
happened that a man going to the loan office carried 
money for his neighbours and had the certificates made 
in his own name. Boudinot had himself once got $10,000 
of certificates in this way for ten different people, and 
it all stood in his name. 

A few days later Sedgwick pointed out that if the 
original holders of the certificates really had an equitable 
right in their enhanced value they could sue and recover 
in the courts. The reasoning was one-sided and against 
Madison, and the funding plan as outlined by Hamilton 
was agreed to by a safe majority. 

That part of Hamilton's scheme which provided for 
Federal assumption of State debts aroused a far deeper 
and more acrimonious opposition. The argument in 
favour of the measure was : the States had taken up arms 
in a common cause in the Revolution and had been 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 183 

bound to contribute to the best of their abiHty. Debts 
contracted by an individual State were thus the same 
as if contracted by all. Those States which had been 
exposed to the enemy's ravages had been forced to make 
greater exertions than the others, and by equal taxation 
all should help to pay. As matters stood, the sources 
of revenue of some States were much less than they had 
been before the new Government was adopted. Mas- 
sachusetts and South Carolina, for instance, would find 
it impossible to pay their debts now that they were 
deprived of the right of levying import duties. Every- 
body admitted that the debts incurred by the States 
must be paid, and it could be done more economically 
by one government and one set of revenue officers than 
by two sets. 

The argument against the measure was: the debts 
had been incurred by the States wholly upon their own 
credit and no more than this stood behind the securities 
when they were marketed. If it had been intended 
that these separate debts should be assumed by the new 
Government the Constitution would have so stated, as 
it had been done with reference to Continental debts. 
A general assumption would be unjust, because the 
States which had made effective efforts to provide for 
their debts would be obliged to shoulder the burdens 
of other States which had made less efforts. An increase 
of taxation would be inevitable. As the assumption 
was not expected by the creditors it had not been gen- 
erally demanded. South Carolina being the only State 
which had asked for it.* A list of the debts to be as- 
sumed showed that half of the aggregate amount came 
from Massachusetts, Connecticut and South Carolina. 

The arguments for and against the assumption con- 
tinued to be repeated for weeks, and strongest among 
the opponents was Madison, who declared his unqualified 
dissent to Hamilton's proposition that a public debt was 
a benefit. He thought it was an evil to be got rid of as 
soon as possible. 

* See Tucker's "Life of Jefferson, " I, 319, et seq. 



i84 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

March 1 2 the assumption proposition won in Committee 
of the Whole by a majority of five votes only, and was re- 
ported favourably to the House ; but before the House took 
it up on March 23, the new North Carolina members 
arrived and were admitted. They voted against the 
assumption, and a motion to recommit was carried by 
a majority of two votes. The next day the assumption 
party succeeded in having the funding provision also 
recommitted, their object being to keep the two measures 
together and help the unpopular assumption scheme by 
the less unpopular funding scheme. April 12 the assump- 
tion was defeated by a vote of 21 to 29. Its friends 
then resorted to dilatory tactics, and for a time pre- 
vented the House from going into committee. An 
attempt of Roger Sherman to secure acceptance of a 
modified form of assumption was defeated, and a bill 
was ordered to be brought in providing for the foreign 
and domestic debt without it. The new bill was reported 
May 6, taken up in Committee of the Whole, May 19, and 
after several days' debate Gerry moved as an amend- 
ment an assumption clause. The assumption had been 
accepted once and defeated twice, and it was now thrown 
out again, the bill being passed without it June 2. It 
had, however, been offered in a separate form the day 
before and laid on the table. Among those who were 
opposed to the assumption were four members who 
deserve to be noticed — Alexander White and Richard 
Bland Lee from Virginia, and Daniel Carroll and George 
Gale from Maryland. White was the most active of these 
opponents and introduced a resolution calling upon the 
Secretary of the Treasury to report to Congress the ways 
and means by which he expected to provide for the 
$25,000,000 of State debts he was so anxious to assume.* 
The motion was intended to cause delay or embarrassment 
to the assumption party. Madison supported it, but 
it was defeated by a tie vote of 25 to 25. White came 
from Rappahannock County, through which the Potomac 

* Annals of Congress, ist Cong., 1404. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 185 

River runs, and his colleague Lee from Alexandria, the 
chief port on the Potomac, while Daniel Carroll came 
from the Maryland side of the same river.* Gale was 
an obscure member who had apparently no personal inter- 
est in the river. On July 26, the question of the assump- 
tion was before the House again, and Madison, of course, 
voted against it, but when the vote was announced, it 
appeared that White, Lee, Carroll and Gale had voted 
with the assumption party, and the measure was carried 
by 34 votes to 28. It was by no new argument that 
this result had been brought about, nor had their opinions 
changed with their votes. Influences had been brought 
to bear upon them outside of Congress, and they gained 
by changing their votes something they wished for more 
than they wished to defeat the assumption proposition. 

The opposition to the funding scheme came chiefly 
from the South, and there the Federal assumption of 
State debts was generally disapproved of, except in the 
State of South Carolina, whose debt was so large that 
its assumption by the general Government was an alter- 
native for its non-payment. The Legislature accord- 
ingly instructed the members to vote for the measure, 
but the instructions were unnecessary to William Smith 
and William Tudor Tucker, the two members who repre- 
sented the broad Federalism then dominant in South 
Carolina, ^danus Burke, the third member, repre- 
sented the extreme type of Anti-Federalists, and when 
the bill first came up he promptly expressed his alarm at 
"the political consequences" to the State Governments 
of such a measure, but he changed his attitude the next 
day in view of the exigencies of his State, f 

In Virginia the funding provision was not generally 
liked, and the assumption provision was almost univer- 
sally condemned. Edward Carrington, who had been 

* This was Daniel Carroll of Upper Marlboro, who should not be 
confounded, as he usually is, with Daniel Carroll of Duddington, whose 
lands were embraced in the District of Columbia. 

t Annals of Congress, ist Cong. 



i86 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

one of Madison's staunchest supporters in favour of the 
formation and adoption of the Constitution, and who 
was always a strong FederaUst, wrote to Madison from 
Richmond March 27, 1790, that he did not agree with 
him about the payment of certificates. It was a melan- 
choly truth, he said, that the public rewards with respect 
to the public debt had been transferred from those who 
had earned them to those who had paid but little for 
them. The purchase had often been made "under a 
dishonourable conduct, " but between the public and the 
original creditors there was no fraud. There was neither 
law nor equity for paying to another any part of a claim 
which the present possessor openly and fairly acquired. 
The soldiers who were the chief siifferers were not now 
complaining. The assumption proposition, on the other 
hand, Carrington thought, was a wise measure on prin- 
ciple, but an iniquitous one under actual conditions, 
and involved a grievous burden on those States which 
had paid part of their debt. Later (April 7), Carring- 
ton reported that the assumption meastire was generally 
unsatisfactory. The Anti-Federalists were naturally 
opposed to it, and so w^ere many of the Federalists, who 
considered it as leading to consolidation. It would 
have a bad effect in alienating the people from the Con- 
stitution. Governor Beverly Randolph wTote, July 12, 
1790, that it was thought it would produce "a perfectly 
consolidated government," and a great ferment would 
result. He believed not a single advocate could be 
found to support it.* Bland voted in favor of it, having 
completely changed his views, f and was liberally cen- 
sured in the State in consequence. The rest of the 
Virginia delegation stood solidly against it. Edmund 
Pendleton, Edmund Randolph and James ]\Ionroe were 
also opposed to it. Rev. James Madison, of William 
and Mary, wrote congratulating Madison on his pro- 
position concerning the certificates. J Henry Lee thought 

* Dept. of State MSS. 

t Henry's "Henry," III, 418. 

t Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 187 

the bill was "abhorrent to political wisdom and not 
strictly consonant to justice." He was unalterably 
opposed to a funding system. National debts gave an 
imdue control to a moneyed class. Madison's motion 
for the payment of certificates was, he said, pleasing 
to the country interests and displeasing to those of the 
towns. As the debate progressed Lee became more 
pronounced in his views. April 3 he wrote that all of 
Patrick Henry's dark predictions about the Constitution 
were coming true. He would rather see the Union 
dissolve than submit .to "the rule of a fixed insolent 
Northern majority." "Is your love for the Constitu- 
tion," he asked, "so ardent, as to induce you to adhere 
to it, though it should produce ruin to your native coun- 
try ?"* George Nicholas said the assumption was unjust 
and exceeded the power of Congress. 

Jefferson arrived too late in New York to take part 
in the battle then in progress. Probably on Aladison's 
representation he was opposed to the bill as it stood, but 
he did not take much interest in the pending questions. 
" I do not pretend to be very competent to their decision," 
he wrote George Mason, June 15, 1790.! He concluded 
that the acceptance of a modified assimiption bill was 
preferable to the complete loss of a funding measure; 
it was certainly preferable to a crash of the Government 
which was threatened.! 

The Virginia Legislature taking the bill into consid- 
eration after it had passed presented the first remon- 
strance of a State against a Federal act. It was written 
by Henry^ and came from a committee of eleven mem- 
bers, seven of whom had advocated the ratification of 
the Constitution in the convention of 1788, the chairman 
being Madison's coadjutor, Francis Corbin.|| The remon- 

* Dept. of State MSS. 
t Writings (Ford), V, 184. 

% To Thomas Mann Randolph, June 20, 1790, "Writings" (Ford) 
V, 186. 

^ Henry's " Henry, " II, 456. 
jl Rives, III, 149, et seq. 



1 88 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

strance denoimced the funding act as against good 
policy, justice and the principles of the Constitution. 
The restriction against the redeemability of the public 
debt would create a moneyed class against an agricultural 
class and was borrowed from England. The assumption 
act was denounced as unjust to the States which had pro- 
vided for their debts, and especially to Virginia, which had 
" redeemed a large proportion of her debt by the collection 
of heavy taxes levied on her citizens," and would now 
have an additional burden laid upon her. This measure 
also transcended the fairly-interpreted powers of Con- 
gress under the Constitution. Congress was urged to 
modify the funding provision and repeal the assumption 
provision. The resolutions coming after Congress had 
acted were not entirely approved by the Federalists in 
the State. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CAPITAL 

The Constitution gave authority to Congress to accept 
from the State or States ceding it a district not to exceed 
ten miles square, to be exclusively under the jurisdiction 
of the National Government, for a permanent seat of 
Government. The provision came from a resolution 
offered in the Convention on August 3 by Aladison that 
"the Legislature shall at their first assembling determine 
on a place at which their future sessions shall be held," 
In his speech supporting the resolution Madison said 
it would be more important under the new Government 
than it had been under the old, that the capital be in a 
central location, because the new Government would 
be more numerous, and as it would exercise many func- 
tions not now pertaining to the Federal Government 
more people would be obliged to resort to the capital 
than had hitherto done so. The first Congress under 
the Constitution was, therefore, in a measure obliged 
to take up the question of locating a new capital as one 
of its manifest duties. How the question became in- 
volved with that of making provision for the public debt, 
so that the settlement of the one meant the settlement 
of the other, is a story of trading of votes in Congress 
and of a bargain struck between Alexander Hamilton 
and Thomas Jefferson. The actuating motive of the 
voting was a desire to secure sectional advantages, and 
this desire was so apparent that it is clear that there 
was little of a broad national spirit among the members 
of the first Congress. To them neither the assumption 
of the State debts nor the choice of a site for the capital 
involved any deep principle. The assumption was a 

189 



190 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

part of Hamilton's carefully laid plan for arranging the 
national finances and it was necessary for the completion 
of the plan that it be carried. But its most earnest 
supporters were Representatives of those States which 
would suffer a grievous financial burden if it failed, and 
its most earnest opponents were from the States which 
would gain if it failed. The Constitutional argument 
was not seriously invoked and influenced no votes against 
it; it was regarded as a measure of expediency by its 
friends and opponents. In the form in which it appeared 
it was, however, a new question, whereas the choice of 
a permanent site for a capital was an old question which 
had been fought over for years. 

In the autumn of 1783 mutinous soldiers of the army 
hooted at the doors of Congress and demanded their 
pay, and as the authorities of Philadelphia were unable 
to afford protection the Government fled to Princeton. 
This humiliating incident had borne in upon Congress 
the necessity of having a home of its own, under its 
exclusive jurisdiction, and there then began a struggle 
to secure the capital of the United States which continued 
with little abatement for the next seven years. 

New York offered a tract of land at Kingston. The 
Virginia delegates promptly wrote to the Governor of 
their State proposing that joint action be taken 
by Virginia and Alaryland to offer a site on the Potomac 
River near Georgetown. The prevailing sentiment was 
then, however, in favor of two capitals, and examination 
was made of sites near the falls of the Delaware and the 
falls of the Potomac. Until buildings should be erected 
it was proposed that Congress sit alternately at Trenton 
and Annapolis.* Jefferson favoured a floating capital 
and in writing to Monroe, June 17, i785,t said that Con- 
gress could go to Georgetown from New York and then 
somewhere else. The idea of two capitals was soon 

* Sumner's "Financiers and Finances of the American Revolution," 
II, 235, ct seq. 

t "Writings" (Ford) IV. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 191 

abandoned, however, and on December 20, 1784, a 
resolution passed in favor of erecting buildings at only 
one place. Three days later it was voted to go to New 
York for the present, the result being accompHshed by 
a union of New England and New York members. Feb- 
ruary 10, 1785, it was agreed to lay out a town for a 
permanent residence on the Delaware and commissioners 
were appointed for the purpose. They took no steps, 
however, but merely arranged for the accommodation of 
Congress at New York. 

In Virginia there had been a movement in favor of 
Williamsburg, and the Rev. James Madison, urged its 
consideration upon his kinsman, who, however, 
advocated the joint offer of a Potomac site by Virginia 
and Maryland, and wrote July, 1783, recommending 
that I\Iaryland abandon her efforts for Annapolis. May 
10, 1787, a few days before the Constitutional Conven- 
tion met, Richard Henry Lee offered this resolution in 
Congress : 

"Whereas, The convenient and due administration 
of the Government of the United States requires, that 
a permanent situation most central to all parts of the 
Union be established for holding the sessions of Congress ; 
Resolved, That the Board of Treasury take measures for 
erecting the necessary public buildings for the accommo- 
dation of Congress at Georgetown, on Potowmack River, 
so soon as the soil and jurisdiction of the said town are 
obtained, and that on the completion of the said build- 
ings. Congress adjourn their sessions to the said Federal 
town."* Congress declined by a vote of five States to 
four to take the subject up. After the ratification of 
the Constitution the idea of starting the new Government 
in New York was bitterly opposed by the Virginians. 
New York was, Madison said,t too remote to both South 
and West. The West was already prejudiced against 
the East because of its advocacy of the abandonment 

* Journals of Congress (Ed. 1801) XII, 51. 

t "Works of Madison" (Cong. Ed.) I, 409, ct seq. 



192 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

of the navigation of the Mississippi. It was being tam- 
pered with by Spain and must be placated instead of 
being offended by a choice of the enemy's country for 
the new capital. The Southern prejudice against the 
East, also, would be fed, and the Anti-Federalists' state- 
ment that the East would have a preponderating influence 
under the new Government would be believed. There 
was, he added, another and a highly important reason 
against sitting in New York. The first year or two of 
the new Government would see all the great arrangements 
made affecting its tone for all time, and these would be 
influenced by its location. Philadelphia was better than 
New York. If the new Government met in the former 
city a deliberate choice of a permanent seat miight be 
made, but Southern and Western members coming all 
the way to New York would be apt to vote precipitately 
for a change which, he feared, would be to a site north 
of the Potomac. He was positive this was the hope of 
the advocates of New York. The only chance for the 
Potomac was to form a coalition between the Southern 
and Eastern States, or secure a delay for a few years, 
by which time the growing Western population would 
make its voice heard for the Potomac. A vigorous 
protest against New York was accordingly made in the 
last hours of the Congress under the Confederation.* 
A motion by Williamson of North Carolina, in favour 
of some place farther south than New York was lost, 
and by one vote Philadelphia shared the same fate. By 
the same slender majority Baltimore was selected, but 
set aside August i6, and New York substituted. The 
argument advanced for New York was simply that the 
new Government ought to be free to choose a place of 
residence for itself. August 26, Wilmington, Delaware, 
was proposed and rejected, Madison voting against it, 
but on September 2 he voted for Lancaster, Pa. The 
next day he voted against Annapolis, and September 2 
seconded Edward Carrington's motion for a more central 

* Journals of Congress (Ed. 1801) XIII, 62, et seq. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 193 

point than New York. It became apparent that the 
new Government would sit in New York or not sit at 
all; for while there was a sufficient number of votes to 
prevent the selection of that town they could not be 
concentrated on any other place. The opposition yielded 
and New York was selected. Madison thought the 
result fatal to the prospects of the Potomac, and pre- 
dicted that the site ultimately chosen would not be 
farther south than the Delaware or Susquehanna. 

When the new Congress met Alexander White of 
Virginia laid before it on May 15, 1789, an act passed 
by the General Assembly of his State, December 27, 1788, 
offering ten miles square of any portion of its territory 
for a new Federal district. The next day Seney of 
Maryland offered a similar act from Maryland, both 
States having acted in the hope that the site selected 
might include the soil on either side of the Potomac 
River.* 

On August 27, Scott of Pennsylvania offered a reso- 
lution f that the permanent seat of Congress ought to 
be at the territorial centre of wealth and population and 
convenient to the navigation of the Atlantic, as well 
as easy of access to the Western country, f This he 
meant as a description of the banks of the Susquehanna, 
and September 3, Goodhue of Massachusetts offered 
a supplementary resolution in favor of remaining in 
New York until removing to that river. It was hoped 
to thus secure the support of New York to the Susque- 
hanna, by leaving the capital at New York longer than 
it reasonably had a right to expect. Only the Eastern 
States were contented to meet in New York, and it was 
conceded that it could not possibly be chosen as the 
permanent capital. Any place in the East was out of 
the question for geographical reasons, so the Eastern 

* "Locating the Capital," Annual Rept. Am. Hist. Assoc'n. 1895; 
289. 

t Rives, III, 50, et seq. 

X Annals of Congress, ist Cong., 786. 



194 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

members were free to cast their votes as they might 
advance their interests in other matters before Congress. 

Richard Bland Lee, seconded by Daniel Carroll, offered 
a substitute for Goodhue's motion, providing for the 
selection of a site most convenient to the Atlantic and 
to the Western country. In order to attract the Eastern 
members Aladison suggested that the adoption of this 
motion need not interfere with the ultimate consideration 
of Goodhue's proposition,* but it was in reality intended 
to prejudice it, because if it were adopted it would be 
shown that the banks of the Potomac was the only site 
satisfying the description. Lee's motion was lost by a 
vote of two to one, and defeat stared the Potomac party 
in the face. A combination had been formed by the 
East and Pennsylvania, and Madison declared that the 
question had evidently been settled out of doors. His 
pleadings for delay— even for a day— in order to present 
reasons against choosing the Susquehanna were dis- 
regarded, the House refusing to postpone the question 
by a vote of 27 to 23. Madison declared the Potomac 
party faced "a determined and silent majority." Burke 
of South Carolina said: "A league has been formed 
between the Northern States and Pennsylvania. " Wads- 
worth of Connecticut wanted to finish the business. 
He said he "must either give his vote now or submit to 
more bargaining. He was willing that the whole busi- 
ness of bargaining should be exposed; he would net 
excuse himself; he did not dare to go to the Potomac. 
He feared that the whole of New England would consider 
the Union destroyed. Since the matter had been so 
prematurely brought on, since members had been forced 
and, as it were, dragged by the throat to this business, 
he hoped it was now finished. " In an exceedingly angry 
mood the House adjourned. 

The complaints of the Southern members at the bar- 
gaining were due to their chagrin at the failure of their 
own efforts to form a coalition. The Eastern and North- 

* Annals of Congress, ist Cong., 840, et seq. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 195 

ern members had in the beginning of the session en- 
deavored to decide on a location, but disagreeing had 
made overtures to the South by offering the Susquehanna 
if Congress might remain for the present at New York. 
If the South would not agree to this they might expect 
Trenton to be chosen* The threat was ineffective 
and the South offered the temporary location to Phil- 
adelphia in return for Pennsylvania's support of the 
Potomac for a permanent site. The combination pro- 
mised to be effected when there was an unexpected 
reunion of Pennsylvania, New York and the East on the 
basis of fixing the permanent seat on the Susquehanna. 

Discussion was resumed in the House, September 4, 
and the question of the central location of the proposed 
sites was debated, ]\Iadison arguing that the point was 
of the utmost consequence because as many people as 
possible should be made friendly to the Government 
by its proximity to them. He admitted that by the 
test of the present population of the coiintry the centre 
was on the Susquehanna, but insisted that it was certainly 
moving toward the Southwest. He proposed that the 
question be narrowed to the Susquehanna or the Potomac, 
but the motion was voted down. A few days later he 
reiterated the charge that the Southern members were 
being "disposed of." Wadsworth replied for the East- 
em members that they had not bargained until they 
were assured bargaining was in progress for the Potomac. 

Vining's endeavor to secure consideration of the 
Delaware site failed, and so did a motion by the Potomac 
party that no place should be chosen except upon the 
banks of a river offering unobstructed navigation to 
the sea. It was well known that such navigation did 
not exist on the Susquehanna and did on the Potomac. 
Another dilatory motion by Madison was swept aside, 
and September 22 the bill providing for the Susquehanna 
was passed and went to the Senate. Madison had ex- 
pressed privately the hope that it would be amended 

* Madison to Pendleton, Sept. 14, 17S9, "Works" (Cong. Ed.) I, 491. 



196 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

by that body and his expectations were reahzed, for 
the New York and Pennsylvania combination was strong 
enough to change the place to the eastern side of the 
Delaware, so as to include Germantown, this being 
tantamount to the choice of Philadelphia itself. On 
Saturday, September 26, the bill thus amended came 
before the House and an effort to postpone its consid- 
eration was lost. On Monday, when it was on the point 
of final passage, Madison called attention to the fact 
that no provision was made for the continuance in the 
new district of Pennsylvania law, until Congress should 
provide some other law. If the omission was not supplied 
the new district would be left without any law at all. 
The point could not be ignored and the amendment 
offered by Madison remedying the evil was agreed to. 
This compelled the return of the bill to the Senate, and 
the next day Congress adjourned with the bill unpassed. 
Madison had saved the rejection of the Potomac site 
by a hair's breadth. 

Before the members of Congress separated to go to 
their homes I\Iadison and Robert Morris had a private 
conversation on the subject of the capital, and Morris 
held out hopes of a satisfactory arrangement between 
Pennsylvania and the South, but Madison was embittered 
by the wearisome contest and had little faith that his 
party would ultimately win the victory. He did not 
credit the friendly protestations of Morris, who had 
been chief of the forces in the Senate opposing the 
Potomac site.* 

At the next session the first motion on the subject 
was made June 10, 1790, when it was proposed that the 
next Congress meet at Philadelphia. This was agreed 
to by the House, and the resolution was pending in the 
Senate, when the funding bill, shorn of the assumption 
feature, also came up from the House. On June 8, the 
Senate rejected Philadelphia as a temporary capital 

* Madison to Washington, Nov. 20, 1789, "Works of Madison" 
(Cong. Ed.) I, 495- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 197 

and took up in its place a bill for a permanent seat of 
Government, and immediately Ellsworth offered a new 
assumption bill. Thereafter the two measures were 
kept side by side and played against each other. The 
Southern and Pennsylvania coalition was effected again. 
" We are sold by the Pennsylvanians," wrote Fisher Ames, 
June II, 1790, "and the assumption with it. They 
seem to have bargained to prevent the latter, on the 
terms of removing to Philadelphia. It becomes necessary 
to defeat this corruption." 

The House accordingly passed a resolution in favour 
of holding the next session at Baltimore, but the Senate 
on June 28 passed a substitute bill providing for a 
permanent seat of Government on the Potomac River 
between the Eastern Branch and Connogocheague 
Creek. By a vote of 32 yeas to 29 nays this bill was 
agreed to by the House a few days later, and became a 
law. Success was thus finally substituted for a succes- 
sion of failures. The story of how it was accomplished 
can best be told in the language of the chief actor. 

Thomas Jefferson came back to the United States 
from France in December, 1789, and on March 21, 1790, 
went to New York, to enter upon the duties of the office 
of Secretary of State. He foimd public affairs in an 
alarming state. When the House rejected the assump- 
tion scheme, so bitter were the feelings of the two parties 
that they could not do business together and Congress 
adjourned from day to day. If the tension was not 
lessened there was danger that the whole fabric of Gov- 
ernment would break. In The Anas Jefferson records 
how the situation was relieved: 

"Hamilton was in despair. As I was going to the 
President's one day I met him in the street. He walked 
me backwards and forwards before the President's door 
for half an hour. He painted pathetically the temper 
into which the Legislature had been wrought, the disgust 
of those who were called the Creditor States, the danger 
of the secession of their members, and the separation 



198 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

of the States. He observed that the members of the 
Administration ought to act in concert, that tho' this 
question was not in my department, yet a comimon duty 
should make it a common concern; that the President 
was the centre on which all administrative questions 
ultimately rested, and that all of us should rally aroimd 
him and support with joint efforts measures approved 
by him, and that the question having been lost by a 
small majority only, it was probable that an appeal from 
me to the judgment and discretion of some of my friends 
might effect a change in the vote, and the machine of 
Government, no\v suspended, might be again set in 
motion. I told him that I was reaUy a stranger to the 
whole subject; not having yet informed myself of the 
system of finances adopted, I knew not how far this was 
a necessary sequence, that undoubtedly if its rejection 
endangered a dissolution of our Union at this incipient 
stage, I should deem that the most unfortunate of con- 
sequences, to avoid which all partial and temporary 
evils should be yielded. I proposed to him, however, 
to dine with me the next day, and I would invite another 
friend or two, bring them into conference together, and 
I thought it impossible that reasonable men, consulting 
together coolly, could fail, by some mutual sacrifices of 
opinion, to form a compromise which was to save the 
Union. The discussion took place. I could take no 
part in it but an exhortatory one, because I was a stranger 
to the circumstances which should govern it. But it 
was finally agreed that, whatever importance had been 
attached to the rejection of this proposition, the preserva- 
tion of the Union and of concord among the States was 
more important, and that therefore it would be better 
that the vote of rejection should be rescinded, to effect 
which some members should change their votes. But 
it was observed that this pill would be pecuHarly bitter 
to the Southern States, and that some concomitant 
measure should be adopted to sweeten it a little to' them. 
There had been before propositions to fix the seat of 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 199 

Government either at Philadelphia, or at Georgetown 
on the Potomac, and it was thought that by giving it to 
Philadelphia for ten years, and to Georgetown perma- 
nently afterwards, this might, as an anodyne, calm in 
some degree the ferment which might be excited by the 
other measures alone. So two of the Potomac members 
(White and Lee, but White with a revulsion of stomach 
almost convulsive) agreed to change their votes, and 
Hamilton undertook to carry the other point. In doing 
this the influence he had established over the Eastern 
members, with the agency of Robert ]\Iorris with those 
of the JMiddle States, effected his side of the engagement, 
and so the assumption was passed, and 20,000,000 of 
stock divided among favoured States, and thrown in as 
pabulum to the stock-jobbing herd." 

Jefferson also relates that he had Hamilton and ]\Iad- 
ison to dine with him, and that Madison there agreed 
that if the assumption bill came up again he would leave 
it to its fate and while opposing it would not obstruct 
its coming to a vote. Perhaps this conference is a mis- 
take of recollection on Jefferson's part ; but if it occurred 
it was after the fateful feast when the real bargaia was 
effected. 

Hamilton performed his part of the contract first. 
The act locating the permanent seat of Government 
on the Potomac was passed in the middle of July. July 
23 the amendment to the fimding bill providing for the 
assumption of State debts was agreed to by a vote of 
32 ayes to 29 nays. It was approved August 4, 1790. 
The only Southerners voting for it, except the South 
Carolina members, were White and Lee of Virginia, and 
Daniel Can'oU and George Gale of Maryland. 

As for the part Madison played in a consummation 
so consonant with his desires in one respect and so con- 
trary to them in another, he had nothing to do with 
the main bargain, as the first dinner was necessarily 
arranged for without his knowledge. Afterwards he 
must have known of the agreement reached, and White 



2 00 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

and Lee in all probability told him of their intention 
to vote for the assumption bill. When it came up he 
played an inactive but a highly important part, for he 
permitted it to pass without putting in its way any of 
those parliamentary obstructions which he could use 
so skilfully when it suited him, and which he had so 
successfully applied against the bill locating the capital 
on the Delaware. A year later when the smoke of battle 
had cleared away, Jefferson declared he had been duped 
by Hamilton and made his tool in lending his aid to the 
assumption bill, and that of all the errors of his political 
life he regretted this the most.* He was not famnliar 
with the pending financial questions, he said ; but Mad- 
ison was perfectly familiar with them and had been 
fighting against them, and he permitted the consumma- 
tion of the bargain between Hamilton and Jefferson 
because he believed it to be for the public interest. The 
East was determined to have the assumption bill; the 
South was deteiTnined to have the capital. The bitter- 
ness of the Southern opposition to the assumption was 
taken away by the "concomitant measure," as Jefferson 
called it, which gave it the capital, and Madison's cor- 
respondents wrote from Virginia that public sentiment 
in that State had been appeased. In neither section 
does it appear that there was serious condemnation of 
the manifest trading of votes which had brought about 
an accommodation of interests. A good-natured raillery 
was indulged in, but none of those who did the bargaining, 
nor even of those who had changed their votes, suffered 
in his reputation or received punishment from his con- 
stituents. 

♦Randall's "Jefferson,:: II, 78. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE IMPLIED POWERS 

Not only were the funding and assumption bills 
opposed by Madison, but Hamilton's bank bill also. 
It came before Congress, February 2, 1791, and was 
promptly passed by the Senate. In the House, however, 
it met with a well-managed opposition of which Madison 
was the body and soul.* In the course of the debate 
Elbridge Gerry described him as the original stock from 
which all other arguments were grafts. "If the trunk 
fell, its appendages must fall also," he said; so the forces 
in favour of the bill concentrated their efforts against 
him. He thought it undesirable that there should be 
one great bank in America, as there was in England 
where the object was to concentrate wealth in London. 
Such an institution would banish the precious metals 
from use, substituting other mediums to perform their 
office, and individuals might suffer grievously if there 
should ever be a run on the bank. But his chief argu- 
ment against the bank was that the Constitution did 
not warrant its creation. Certain rules should be ob- 
served in construing that instrument. It could not 
properly be so interpreted as to destroy the nature of 
the Government. When its meaning was clear it must 
be interpreted without regard to the consequences which 
might follow; but when its meaning was doubtful the 
consequences should be considered. In controversies 
over its meaning the intention of the framers was a proper 
guide, if it could be ascertained, and concurrent and 
contemporary expositions were reasonable evidence of 
the intention. In admitting or rejecting constructive 

* Annals of Congress, ist Cong. 2d Sess., 1895, et seq. 

201 



202 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

authority the incidentality and importance of the author- 
ity were to be considered, as upon this would depend 
the probabiHty or improbabiHty of the authority being 
left to implication. Under these rules he could find 
no place for the bank. The power to provide for the 
"common defence and general welfare" must be under- 
stood as limited by the particular enumeration of powers 
in the Constitution. To understand otherwise would 
be to render the enumeration nugatory, and the powers 
reserved to the State Government would be entirely 
superseded. It was enough to point out that the words 
were copied from the old Articles of Confederation, 
Even if the bank did not interfere with the powers of 
the States, it would still be tmconstitutional, if Congress 
were not given authority by the Constitution to create 
it. If a bank might be incorporated by Congress, so 
might anything else be — canal companies, manufac- 
tories and religious societies for instance. A certain set 
of arguments had been used to explain the Constitution 
and secure its ratification, and it could not now be ad- 
ministered by another set. It was idle to say that, if 
there was imwarranted exercise of power by Congress 
the judges would rectify the mistake. Suppose the 
judges also should be guided by motives of expediency ? 
He thought the bill "was condemned by the silence of 
the Constitution; was condemned by the rule of inter- 
pretation arising out of the Constitution ; was condemned 
by its tendency to destroy the main characteristics of 
the Constitution; was condemned by the expositions 
of the friends of the Constitution, whilst depending 
before the public ; was condemned by the apparent inten- 
tion of the parties which ratified the Constitution; was 
condemned by the explanatory amendments proposed 
by Congress themselves to the Constitution ; and he 
hoped it would receive its final condemnation by the 
vote of this House." 

Ames, Sedgwick, Gerry, Boudinot, Vining and Smith 
of South Carolina crowded to the defence of the bill. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 203 

They took the ground that "every Government from 
the instant of its formation has tacitly annexed to its 
being the various powers which are essential to the pur- 
poses for which it was formed. " Ames said : " Congress 
may do what is necessary to the end for which the Con- 
stitution was adopted, provided it is not repugnant to 
the natural rights of man, or to those which they have 
expressly reserved to themselves, or to the powers which 
are assigned to the States." There then began the 
battle over the implied powers of the Constitution and 
the general welfare clause which has waged without 
intermission ever since. 

The bank bill passed the House by a vote of 39 to 20, 
nearly all the Southern members voting against it. 
Washington doubted seriously whether he ought to 
sign it. He complained in his conversation with Madison 
in 1792, of an "unfitness to judge of legal questions and 
questions arising out of the Constitution," and this was 
doubtless one of the occasions to which he alluded. 
Accordingly, he asked Jefferson and his Attorney-Gen- 
eral, Randolph, for their opinion and they advised him 
against the bill, and Madison, at his request, prepared 
a veto message for him to use if he desired. Hanjilton, 
however, successfully replied to the objections and the 
bill became law. 

At the end of the year (December 5,) Hamilton's 
famous report in favor of a protective tariff for the 
development of manufactures was laid before Congress, 
and a schedule of duties on imports was introduced to 
take the place of Madison's temporary schedule adopted 
at the first session of Congress. On Januaiy 21, 1792, 
Madison wrote to Pendleton to say he considered Ham- 
ilton's reasoning on the general welfare clause to be 
subversive of the fundamental principles of the Govern- 
ment, and "as bidding defiance to the sense in which 
the Constitution is known to have been proposed, advo- 
cated and adopted. " A few days later a bill was intro- 
duced for the encouragement of the cod fisheries by 



204 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

providing bounties, and he elaborated the arguments 
he had used against the bank bill to show that bounties 
on exports were unconstitutional.* The effect of the 
speech was that the word "bounty" was withdrawn 
and "drawback" substituted for it and Madison voted 
for the bill thus amended. The principle involved had 
not, of course, been altered in the slightest degree by 
this change, and Hamilton made the contemptuous 
comment that ]\Iadison was afraid to vote against the 
bill because he saw it was popular and would pass. 

Enough has been said to show the irreconcilable 
difference between the two parties which had now 
formed, the one accepting the Constitution conservatively 
with reference to the old conditions, the other using it 
to form a mighty programme of radical innovation. 
Political conditions had changed and especially in Vir- 
ginia. When the State stood as an independent entity 
under the Articles of Confederation, those who favoured 
a stronger Federal Government and those who opposed 
it were almost equal in numbers; but the Constitution 
had been adopted, and the amendments offered to it by 
Madison caused nearly everybody to accept it. Many 
former opponents found themselves now in agreement, 
and Henry Lee, who had advocated the ratification of 
the Constitution so zealously, found himself advocating 
the selection for a vacancy in the Senate, caused by the 
death of William Grayson, of Patrick LLenry, who had 
moved heaven and earth to have the Constitution re- 
jected. It was even proposed by the friends of Madison 
to send him to the Senate and force Henry to take Mad- 
ison's place in the House, f George Mason made over- 
tures of reconciliation with Madison. "I had no occa- 
sion" Jefferson wrote to him, February 4, 1791,! "to 
sound Mr. ]\Iadison on your fears expressed in your letter. 
I knew before, as possessing his sentiments fully on that 

* Annals of Congress, 2d Cong., 385. 

t Dept. of State MSS. 

J " Writings " (Lodge) V., 276. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 205 

subject, that his value for you was undiminished. I 
have ahvays heard him say that though you and he 
appeared to differ in your systems, yet you were in truth 
nearer together than most persons who were classed 
under the same appellation. You may quiet yourself 
in the assurance of possessing his complete esteem. " The 
following year the great author of the Bill of Rights died, 
and there is no doubt that he and ]\Iadison were again 
in substantial agreement on public questions as they had 
been when their struggle for liberty began. 

The truth is that when the new Government began 
operations national feeling did not predominate with 
public men and still less with the mass of the people. 
There had been no national feeling before the Revolution, 
and although it had been called into being by that 
momentous struggle it had quickly subsided after the 
peace. An agreement to try a new form of Government 
could not simultaneously evoke an affection for that 
Government, or change the habits of men's thoughts. 
A Virginian's country was Virginia; next he was a 
Southerner; last of all he was an American. The new 
Government had been in existence seven months when 
Edmund Randolph, a man of far broader patriotism 
than most men, wrote to Madison that he thought he 
might leave Virginia. It would, he said, be "the course 
of expatriation (^^ou see I am not yet a strict American) "* 
When the representatives of the States came together 
to run the new Government they met one another with 
some suspicion, and when a mmiber of measures passed 
through Congress supposed to favour Northern rather 
than Southern interests the Southern States manifested 
jealousy and ill-nature. Everybody was over critical 
towards the acts of Government. Men who were all- 
powerful at home found their importance neutralized 
by so many other powerful men at the capital, and they 
judged severely, because their agency and responsibility 
in Government were diminished under the new order 

* Conway's "Randolph, " 130 



2o6 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

of things, "On their estates they were like big ships 
in a river, while in London they were the same ships 
in the sea," is the quotation invoked by Tucker, Jeffer- 
son's biographer. Tucker's description of the parties 
was drawn from contemporary sources, one of them 
being Madison, and is especially interesting. One party, 
he says, believed that the most imminent danger to the 
country was in disunion; and that popular jealousy 
when inflamed by ambitious demagogues would with- 
hold from the general Government the power necessary 
to insure good order and safety. The other believed 
that the danger most to be apprehended was in too close 
a union, and that those who most strongly favoured it 
wished a consolidated, and even a monarchical, form of 
Government.* 

On May 5, 1792, Madison had a conversation with 
Washington on the subject of the latter's retirement, 
which he argued would be unwise, and he explained to 
him what was the existing political situation. There 
were a few men, Madison said, who had been opposed to 
the adoption of the Constitution and who still wished to 
destroy it, but they had no following. There were 
others who were unfriendly to republican Government, 
and who probably aimed at a gradual approximation 
to a mixed monarchy. Public opinion was, however, 
so much against them that they would not long retain 
a dangerous influence. From this it may be inferred 
that Madison thought they then had such an influence. 

Jefferson records in The Anas that when he came to 
New York from France he was shocked at the conversa- 
tions he heard at dinner parties. "Politics," he says, 
"were the chief topic, and a preference of kingly over 
republican Government was evidently the favourite sen- 
timent." Even at the present day similar sentiments 
may be heard at dinner parties, but they are not taken 
seriously. Their importance was exaggerated by Jeffer- 
son, but there were enough monarchists in the country 

* Tucker's "Jefferson," I, 306, ct scq. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 207 

to justify some alann rather because of what they had 
said in the past than of what they did at the present. 

The man against whom was levelled the full force 
of the accusation of being a monarchist was Alexander 
Hamilton, and his record made him dreadfully vulner- 
able. In the Constitutional Convention he made a 
speech, June 18, 178^ in which he said he anticipated 
the time when his colleagues would agree with Necker 
in thinking the British Constitution the one Government 
"which unites public strength with individual security." 
The House of Lords, he declared, was a "most noble 
institution," forming "a permanent barrier against 
every pernicious innovation, whether attempted on the 
part of the Crown or of the Commons. " " The hereditary 
interest of the King was so interwoven with that of the 
nation, and his personal emolument so great, that he 
was placed above the danger of being corrupted from 
abroad, and at the same time was both sufficiently inde- 
pendent and sufficiently controlled to answer the purpose 
of the institution at home." While the Convention 
was sitting, Hamilton wrote to Washington from New 
York, July 3, saying that in New Jersey and New York 
he had taken pains to find what the public sentiment 
was in the matter of Government. "A plain, but sen- 
sible man" had in conversation with him said the present 
Government would not answer, and for it must be sub- 
stituted "something not very remote from that which 
we have lately quitted. " " I am more and more inclined 
to believe," said Hamilton, "that former habits of 
thinking are regaining their influence with more rapidity 
than is generally imagined." He was convinced that 
"no motley or feeble measure" would finally receive 
public support. The "former habits of thinking" of 
the people were those of loyal subjects of a king; the 
"motley or feeble measure" then under consideration 
in the Convention became the Constitution of the United 
States. When Hamilton became an officer of the Govern- 
ment and offered a plan of finance having for its avowed 



2o8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

purpose the strengthening of the central power, it was not 
unreasonable to attribute to him a desire to shape events 
towards the model which he had proclaimed as the best. 
Hamilton regarded Madison as a factor necessary to 
the success of the new Government. He wrote to him, 
November 23, 1788, to say he was glad he was going 
into the House, where his presence would be needed, 
especially as Wilson, King and Gouvemeur IMorris would 
not be there.* Soon after he became Secretary of the 
Treasury he asked him (October 12, 1798,) to aid in 
preparing the plan which must be submitted to the next 
session of Congress for increasing the pubHc revenue 
and taking care of the public debt.f Apparently, Mad- 
ison's reply was not a definite one, and when Hamilton's 
plan was offered in Congress, Madison opposed every 
feature of it. The disappointment and chagrin of the 
Secretary of the Treasury knew no bounds. He un- 
bosomed himself in a long confidential letter to his friend 
Edward Carrington, March 26, 1792. "When I accepted 
the office I now hold" he said, "it was under full per- 
suasion, that from similarity of thinking, conspiring 
with personal good will, I should have the firm support 
of Mr. Madison in the general course of my adminis- 
tration. Aware of the intrinsic difficulties of the sit- 
uation, and of the powers of Mr. Madison, I do not 
believe I should have accepted under a different sup- 
position. " Madison had not, he went on, expressed 
to him any change in the views he advocated in 1783 on 
the subject of the State debts, and during the sitting 
of the Constitutional Convention had said he favoured 
the assumption. Hamilton had, therefore, told him 
he counted on his support for his financial measures 
in Congress, but Madison alleged, as a reason for a change 
of views, that the recent alienation of the certificates 
of debt by the original holders had altered the situation, 
and that the assumption he favoured was of State debts 

* "Hamilton's Works" (Lodge) 8, 205. 
t Id., 210. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 209 

as they existed at the peace, before any of the States 
had themselves provided for them. Hamilton believed 
his opposition to be sincere, but stories had since been 
brought to him that ]\Iadison and Jefferson were at the 
head of a faction hostile to him, and that on one occasion 
in private conversation Madison had used language un- 
friendly to him. He was forced to believe this, because 
Freneau, who was employed in Jefferson's department 
and was a friend of Madison's, had been systematically 
defaming him in his newspaper. Therefore Hamilton 
had changed his opinion of Madison. His character 
was " one of a peculiarl}^ artificial and complicated 
kind." Hamilton accused him of having opposed the 
motion to request of Hamilton a report on ways and 
means to carry out the Western expedition against the 
Indians, because he knew that if the motion failed Ham- 
ilton would feel so slighted that he would resign. He 
had in debate made insidious insinuations calculated to 
give the impression that the public money had been so 
applied as to give advantage to speculators. Madison, 
Hamilton admitted, had an excuse for his enmity, for 
before this Hamilton had declared openly his "deter- 
mination to consider and treat him as a political enemy. " 
As for the cry that there was a monarchical party, Ham- 
ilton declared by all that was sacred that he did not 
favour a monarchy, and that he was affectionately at- 
tached to a republic. "A very small number of men, " he 
said, "indeed may entertain theories less republican than 
Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison, but I am persuaded that 
there is not a man among them who would not regard 
as both criminal and visionary any attempt to subvert 
the republican system of the country. Most of these 
men rather fear that it may not justify itself by its fruits, 
than feel a predilection for a dift'erent form; and their 
fears are diminished by the factions and fanatical politics 
which they find prevailing among a certain set of gentle- 
men and threatening to disturb the tranquillity and 
order of the Government." The danger to the country 



2IO LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

lay with those men who fostered the spirit of faction 
and anarchy with sinister motives. He did not include 
Madison among them, but Thomas Jefferson was "a man 
of profound ambition and violent passions." 

Edward Carrington, to whom this letter was written, 
was appointed Marshal for the District of Virginia, Sep- 
tember 26, 1789, and was one of the few Virginia Fed- 
eralists who did not join the opposition to Hamilton's 
measures; yet before Hamilton wrote to him he had 
written to Madison, April 20, 1791: "I confess myself 
staggered upon the measure of the Bank and wish it 
had been let alone. I have read with attention your 
reasoning on the subject, and do not think it is refuted 
by the arguments on the other side — I am however 
imwilling to be converted to your opinion, being much 
prepossessed in favour of Banks, and think if it is uncon- 
stitutional for the Federal Gov't, to establish institutions 
of the kind it is a defect."* It was probably he who 
informed Hamilton that the people in Virginia were 
almost unanimously against him, for, August 16, 1792, 
Hamilton wrote to John Adams: " I have a letter from 
a well-informed friend in Virginia who says 'All the 
persons I converse with are prosperous and happy, and 
yet most of them, including the friends of the Govern- 
ment, appear to be much alarmed at a supposed system 
of policy tending to subvert the republican Government 
of the country.' " 

Edmimd Pendleton published observations against 
the bank bill. Patrick Henry, who was so prejudiced 
against Madison that he generally disagreed with him 
on principle and who was soon to turn into an extreme 
consolidationist, wrote the remonstrance of the Virginia 
Legislature against the assumption act, and declared 
Hamilton's report on manufactures meant "subserviency 

of Southern to N n interests, "f The State was 

almost a unit in its opposition to Hamilton's policy. 

* Department of State MSS. 
t Henry's " Henry," II, 456, 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 211 

What was Madison's real belief? He was a self-con- 
tained man, and the hidden current of his hopes, fears 
and ambitions he disclosed to no one, and we must judge 
him by what he said and did and by his surroundings. 
He knew Hamilton well, — knew his genius, his force, and 
his inflexible devotion to a Government of strongly 
centralized power. He knew also that Hamilton's 
system was repugnant to a great majority of the people 
of America, whose attachments were local or sectional. 
In opposing Hamilton Madison secured the favour of 
the people of Virginia as he had never secured it before, 
and he now stood for the first time upon the firm ground 
of a public man who has behind him a constituency prac- 
tically undivided in its support of him. But his position 
was a perfectly natural one, and if base motives of ex- 
pediency must be attributed to him, because he declined 
to follow Hamilton's lead, the same odium must attach 
to the former Federalists in Virginia who now acted 
with him, as they had before acted with him when they 
demanded the Constitutional Convention and the ratifi- 
cation of its results. Further than this, the same odium 
must be visited upon all the former Federalists in the 
South who were now the preponderating force 
in the Anti-Federal party. It is true this party included 
as members those who had opposed the adoption of the 
Constitution, but they now accepted it. At the present 
day it is possible for a man who is a member of the Dem- 
ocratic party to be esteemed, even by those who do not 
agree with him, as an honest patriot, and no violent 
mental effort should be necessary to attribute political 
integrity and patriotic motives to the leaders who 
founded the Democratic party more than a century ago. 

Did Madison believe the charges levelled by his party 
against Hamilton ? How did it happen that he counte- 
nanced the methods of party warfare which Jefferson 
instigated and which no one can now excuse? These 
charges and these methods w^ere not Madison's, but no 
protest against them came from him, and he must share 



212 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

in the censure history pronounces against them. The 
truth is that Madison now had a party chief. This 
chief neither directed nor suggested Madison's opposition 
to Hamilton's consoHdation poHcy, but his political 
conduct was now influenced by Jefferson's stronger 
personality and extraordinary power of attracting men 
to him. To this must be attributed the fact that Mad- 
ison at this period of his career often found himself in 
a position foreign to his former pohtical habits. In the 
heat of political conflict men say and even believe things 
of their opponents which at calmer times they would not 
sanction. This must be remembered in extenuation 
of Madison's attitude toward Hamilton. It is a merciful 
interpretation which ought to be accepted by the parti- 
sans of Hamilton, in exchange for like charity extended 
towards their own hero, who also sadly needs it. 



CHAPTER XXII 

MADISON AS A PARTISAN 

Washington yielded to the requests of the leaders of 
both parties and determined to hold the Presidency for 
a second term, but the Anti-Federalists endeavored 
to defeat the re-election of John Adams to the Vice- 
Presidency. At Hamilton's request* Madison had given 
his aid to Adams' first election, and had opposed George 
Clinton, whom Patrick Henry favoured and who was 
regarded as the arch-conspirator against the Constitution. 
Clinton was now, of course, reconciled to the Constitu- 
tion, and was put forward against Adams, who, it was 
alleged, was of aristocratic tendencies.! In reality no 
well-informed man believed him to be a real aristocrat, 
but he was a Federalist and his party would suffer by 
his defeat. John Beckley, clerk of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, was the active agent of Madison, Monroe and 
other Southern leaders in the endeavour to compass 
Adams' defeat. He wrote to Madison, October 17, 1792, 
from Philadelphia, the letter to be opened by Monroe 
if it did not find Madison at Fredericksburg where he 
was supposed to be, reporting that he had conferred 
w4th ]\Ielancthon Smith, who acted for the Republicans 
in New York, and an authorized representative of the 
party in Pennsylvania, and they had decided to drop 
Aaron Burr for the Vice-Presidency and vigorously press 
the candidacy of Clinton. It was hoped Henry would 
win over North Carolina, and some electoral votes could 
even be counted upon from New England. Beckley 
spoke bitterly of Hamilton, whom he hated and feared. 

* Dept. of State MSS. 
t Rives, III, 311, et seq. 

213 



214 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

Hamilton was working against Clinton, he said, but his 
zeal would in the end betray him, for Beckley had a clue 
to "something far beyond mere suspicion" about him, 
which at the proper time he would disclose. Hamilton's 
hand, Beckley said, could be seen in the proceedings 
of the Virginia Legislature, for he desired the re-election 
to the Senate of Richard Henry Lee.* The author of 
the letters of the Federal Farmer, who had endeavoured 
to strangle the Constitution in the old Congress before 
it could reach the people, who had opposed its ratifica- 
tion bitterly and had been sent by Patrick Henry to the 
Senate where he could oppose it in its operation, had 
turned Federalist and was now Hamilton's friend. 
Beckley said Hamilton worked with "closeted friends," 
and that he was "an extraordinary man, with a com- 
prehensive eye, a subtle and contriving mind, and a soul 
devoted to his object." 

The scheming of the Virginians was so far successful 
that at the Presidential election in 1792 Virginia, which 
cast a larger electoral vote than any other State, cast 
it solidly for Clinton for Vice-President and carried North 
Carolina and Georgia with her, while New York also 
voted for him and he had one vote from Pennsylvania. 
His total was, however, only fifty votes, while Adams 
received seventy-seven. 

Madison had become as bitter a partisan as Jefferson 
himself, and like him he called the Federalists " Mono- 
crats" or "Anglicans." He was a party to the schemes 
to expose what he called the " mal-administration of the 
Treasury," and joined in the cry that money raised to 
pay the French loan was being diverted from its purpose 
and lodged in the United States bank "to extend spec- 
ulations and increase the profits of that institution." 
The cruel resolution introduced into the- House with 
Madison's full knowledge and approval by his colleague 
Giles to investigate the Treasury Department, was to 
his blinded eyes "a pretty interesting scrutiny," for 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



i 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 215 

with some, he said, suspicions were carried very far.* 
The truth was that Hamilton had not paid an instal- 
ment of the French debt, for the very good reason that 
he was not sure he could safely do so. The revolutionists 
were in control of the Government, but the stability of 
their regime was a question of grave doubt, and if he 
paid the money to rebels would he not have to pay it over 
again if the legitimate Government were restored? 
Madison ridiculed this idea. The vain argument, he 
said, might be made that the Government of France 
had not yet arrived at the age of stable maturity, "yet 
it must be evident to all the dispassionate part of man- 
kind that the revolution was sufficiently established to 
insure it against the danger of a retrograde movement. " 
When Thomas Jefferson left Paris liberty was the 
talk of fashionable French society, to which it meant 
little more than did those dinner party conversations 
in favour of monarchy which alarmed him so much when 
he arrived in New York. It was not until the cry for 
liberty coming from the great heart of the common 
people moved them to action that it became a force, and 
when the Bastile fell a passionate sympathy was felt 
with the French by many Americans. It seemed to them 
that the American Declaration of Independence was 
destined soon to become a living truth in the old world 
as it was in the new. There appeared to be every moral 
reason why America should support the revolutionists 
in France, and when war broke out between England 
and her allies on the one side and France on the other 
it became evident that a strong hand would be needed 
in America to check overt acts of hostility to England. 
Now, if Madison and Jefferson had had the question to 
decide, they would have decided for neutrality, for war 
was a hateful thing to them and they spent their lives 
searching for the undiscovered secret of how to conduct 
a Government on a basis of everlasting peace. Never- 

* To Edmimd Randolph, Febraary 2$, 1793. "Works" (Cong. Ed.) 
I, 575- 



2i6 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

theless, the proclamation of neutrality which Washington 
issued, April 22, 1793, did not suit them, because it was 
not worded as they would have wished it to be. It was 
too strong, Madison said, and violated our moral obliga- 
tions. It declared the disposition of the people to be 
one of neutrality, but the President had no right to speak 
on this point. The French sentiment was "warmly 
right," and executive politics were now of an "Anglified 
complexion."* 

The coming of Genet, the first Minister from repub- 
lican France, was looked forward to as offering an oppor- 
tunity for the people to show their displeasure at the 
tone of the proclamation. Madison hoped Genet would 
be received in such a way as would counteract the official 
coolness manifested towards France, but the enthusiasm 
of his greeting and his manner of reciprocating it were 
more than Madison or any other leader of the French 
party had bargained for. French privateers were fitted 
out in American ports, where French prizes also were 
brought. Genet being officially informed that these 
things could not be permitted, declared he would appeal 
from the officers of the Government to which he was 
accredited to the people who were the masters of the 
officers and superior to them. He was given his pass- 
ports and those who had heralded his coming with so 
many hopes found themselves in a ridiculous position. 
There was a large defection from the French party. 
"The only antidote for this poison," wrote ]\Iadison, 
"is to distinguish between the nation and its agent; 
between principles and events; and to impress the well- 
meaning with the fact that the enemies of France and 
Liberty are at work to land them from their honourable 
connection with these into the Government of Great 
Britain,"! but it was too late, for the poison spread and 
with it the bitterness of the French party grew. 

It would be easy to bring many incidents to show 

* " Works " (Cong. Ed.) I, 584. 

t To Jefferson, "Works" (Cong. Ed.) I, 596. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 217 

that the rancorous enmity of the Federalists towards 
the RepubHcans was as great as that of the RepubHcans 
towards them, but one circumstance will serve as a 
sufficient example. The question of the Presidential 
succession came up in Congress and a motion that the 
office should descend in the event of the death of the 
President and Vice-President to the Secretary of State 
was voted down, because Jefferson was the Secretary of 
State, and it was desired to put a slight upon him. Accu- 
sations of base partisan motives were bandied about 
freely and intruded into almost every debate in Congress, 
and even figured in the debate on the bill to naturalize 
aliens. 

When the first Congress met the disposition was to 
accord naturalization readily in order to add to the 
population and obtain emigrants to the West. ]\Iadison 
opposed this, saying that brute numbers was not what 
was needed, but good citizens. He would not exclude 
from American citizenship any man of good fame, but 
he would not admit any who would not add to our wealth 
and strength.* The utmost that he could accomplish, 
however, was an extension of the probationary period 
of residence from one year, as it then was, to two years, 
with an additional requirement that no one should be 
naturalized who was not of "good character." In the 
Congress of 1794 he introduced a bill extending the 
obligatory period of residence before naturalization to 
five years and requiring proof that the applicant was 
a man of good moral character "attached to the Con- 
stitution of the United States, and well disposed to the 
good order and happiness of the same," and a clause 
was added requiring him to renounce any title of nobility 
he might have had as a foreigner. The last requirement 
precipitated a remarkable debate, which turned, as 
everything at that time did, upon foreign politics. f 
Ames said, "The convention of another nation (France) 

* Rives, III, 479, et seq. 

t Annals of Congress, 3d Cong., 1032. 



2i8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

had indelibly disgraced themselves by legislating upon 
trifles, while matters of importance stood by. What 
would be the sense of America upon our spending day 
after day in debating about such a frivolous thing?" 
This taunt Madison answered by the absurdest argument 
that ever fell from his lips. No man, he said, could say 
how far the revolution in Europe would extend. If it 
took place in Great Britain, as he expected it would, the 
peerage of that country would flock to the United States. 
He would welcome them, but he would not admit them 
to citizenship, until they had renounced their titles. 

In the course of the debate Dexter of ]\Iassachusetts 
declared there was no more reason for the rule proposed 
than there would be to hinder His Holiness the Pope 
from entering the United States. He went on at some 
length to ridicule the tenets of the Catholic Church and 
the ranks and titles it observed. It was Madison's old 
self, the champion of religious liberty, who rebuked him. 
" He did not approve, " he said, " the ridicule attempted to 
be thrown out on the Roman Catholics. In their religion 
there was nothing inconsistent with the purest repub- 
licanism. In Switzerland about one-half of the cantons 
were of the Roman Catholic persuasion. Some of the 
most democratic cantons were so; cantons where every 
man gave his vote for a representative. Americans 
had no right to ridicule CathoHcs. They had, many 
of them, proved good citizens during the Revolution."* 

The Federahsts returned to the charge. If one man 
must renounce his titles before being admitted to Ameri- 
can citizenship, they said, why wouldn't it be as just 
to compel another under the same circumstances to 
renounce membership in a Jacobin club? Again: you 
want to hold us up as aristocrats. Very well, we will 
hold you up as slave-dealers, and an amendment was 
offered that no one owning slaves should be admitted 
to citizenship. Nevertheless, the clause requiring the 
renunciation of titles of nobility before securing natural- 

* Annals of Congress, 3d Cong., 1035. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 219 

ization was retained in the bill, and the useless pro- 
vision is a part of the naturalization laws at the present 

time. 

Not even could Hamilton's retirement from the Ad- 
ministration be accepted by Madison without bitterness. 
His last recommendations as Secretary of the Treasury 
were "an arrogant valedictory report," and of his return 
to the practice of law he said: "It is pompously an- 
nounced in the newspapers that poverty drives him 
back to the Bar for a livelihood."* Towards Wash- 
ington, however, Madison's tone of veneration and respect 
never changed, although the inevitable course of political 
events finally drifted them far apart. 

Their acquaintance began when Madison was in the 
Continental Congress, and their correspondence opened 
in the spring of 1783 with a friendly request from Wash- 
ington that Madison should try to find, if he could, some 
place in the peace establishment for Dr. James McHenry, 
formerly Washington's military secretary, and afterwards 
Secretary of War. They became intimate friends and 
Washington depended much upon Madison's advice. f 
They were coadjutors in the Potomac Company; it was 
Madison who helped Washington to see his way clear 
to accepting service in the Constitutional Convention; 
they fought valiantly together to secure the ratification 
of the Constitution by Virginia. During the first four 
years of his service as President, Washington consulted 
Madison on pubHc questions more than he did any 
other man outside of the Cabinet circle. He had extra- 
ordinary confidence in him, and before he accepted the 
Presidency confided his fear that an acceptance might 
be attributed to motives of personal ambition. Madison 
assured him that he was necessary to the safe inaugura- 
tion of the Government, and suggested that he might 
manifest his disinterested motives later on by his retire- 
ment as soon as the Government had been successfully 
put in operation. J 

*" Works" (Cong. Ed.) II, 36.- 
t Id., I, 64. 
t Id., I, 556. 



2 20 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

After three years of service Washington weighed the 
question of announcing his determination not to accept 
a re-election. In his official family he took Jefferson, 
Hamilton, Knox and Randolph into his confidence and 
they advised him not to retire. The only other person 
he consulted was Madison, who, of course, advised him 
as the others had done; but Washington wanted his 
opinion on another point. If he should conclude to 
retire, how should he announce his intention ? Madison 
replied that a direct address to the people would be the 
most fitting way, and at Washington's request he handed 
him on June 21, 1792, a draft of a farewell address. 
Washington put it with his papers, and, concluding to 
accept a second term, had no occasion to use it, until 
five years later when he made it the basis of a part of 
his first draft of the immortal Farewell Address.* He 
sent his draft to Hamilton, and Hamilton sent him 
another draft which he used finally as the framework 
of the address. The first paragraph, announcing his 
purpose to retire, was substantially as Madison had 
written it ; so was the second in which he promised con- 
tinued zeal for the welfare of the country. The fifth, 
regretting his shortcomings, and the sixth, expressing 
gratitude for the honours bestowed upon him, and hope 
for the perpetuity of the Constitution were similar to 
the Madison draft. The draft also contained expressions 
in favor of the Union and the Government which ap- 
peared in the address in a different form. Everything, 
therefore, said in Madison's draft was incorporated in 
the address, but his draft contained only nine paragraphs 
and the address has fifty; nor can it be claimed that its 
striking features are the portion which Madison suggested. 

The reason why Washington did not consult him in 
preparing the final address was that, at the time he was 
drawing it up, Madison no longer enjoyed his confidence 
or favour. He retained both, however, for some time 
after he prepared the first draft; for when Jefferson 

* " Works " (Cong. Ed.) I, 554, et seq. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 221 

announced, July 31, 1793, his intention of retiring from 
the Cabinet, Washington said his first choice for Jeffer- 
son's successor was Madison, but he knew he would not 
serA^e in an executive office* At this time, although 
Madison's political views and affiliations were well 
established, Washington still avoided taking sides with 
either of the poUtical parties. He was naturally, how- 
ever, a FederaUst, for he had no sympathy with the 
idealism of the party which sympathized with the French 
revolutionists, and as a practical man of military training 
who believed in accomplishing results he thought a 
Government ought to be clothed with real authority 
and power. After Jefferson's separation from his admin- 
istration there was no Republican element left, and 
consequently no influence to restrain the attacks upon 
the measures of Government which increased in severity. 
These attacks Washington took as meant to apply partly 
to him, and he broke with the leaders of the opposition. 
"With Madison," says Paul Ford,t "the break does not 
seem to have come from any positive ill feeling, but 
rather an abandonment of intercourse as the differences 
of opinion became more pronounced. " 

October 24, 1793, at Washington's request, Madison 
submitted an opinion on the President's power under 
the Constitution to call a meeting of Congress at some 
place other than Philadelphia where the yellow fever 
was raging ;t and this was the last opinion he ever offered 
to Washington. Two years later, (August 10, 1795,) 
when the bitter struggle over the Jay treaty was in pro- 
gress, he told Chancellor Livingston that unsolicited 
opinions were no longer desired from him by the execu- 
tive.^ He had either received an intimation to that 
effect or inferred it as a natural consequence of his opposi- 
■tion to administration measures. Their personal inter- 

* Rives, III, 382, n. 

t "The True George Washington," 258. 
t "Works" (Cong. Ed.) II, 602. 
lild., 11,46. 



222 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

course did not wholly cease, but there was an end, ap- 
parently, to its cordiality which was never resumed, 
because Washington died when party conflict was still 
raging and when his own feelings on the subject were 
embittered. 

In speaking of him many years after his death Madison 
said: "If any erroneous changes took place in his views 
of persons and public affairs near the close of his life, 
as has been insinuated, they may probablv be accounted 
for by circumstances which threw him into an exclusive 
communication with men of one party, who took ad- 
vantage of his retired situation to make impressions 
unfavourable to their opponents."* Regard for the 
truth compels the statement that Madison probably 
referred to an unfavourable impression of himself enter- 
tained by Washington; for, as fortune willed it, the last 
words spoken by Washington before he took to his bed 
with the ailment from which he died were words of con- 
demnation of Madison uttered with asperity. He was 
alone with Tobias Lear, when as Mr. Lear records : ' ' He 
requested me to read to him the Debates of the Virginia 
Assembly, on the election of a Senator and Governor, 
and, on hearing Mr. Madison's observations respecting 
Mr. Monroe, he appeared much affected, and spoke with 
some degree of asperity on the subject, which I en- 
deavoured to moderate, as I always did on such 
occasions. " 

And yet among the men of this period who have 
stamped themselves upon our history the two least 
associated in the popular mind with extreme partisan- 
ship are Washington and Madison. It was inevitable, 
however, that as Washington's Administration pro- 
gressed and his policy shaped itself it should arouse 
opposition, for the most part sincere and perfectly jus- 
tifiable. 

*Rives, III, 595. 



/ 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE JAY TREATY 

The party feeling during Washington's Administration 
attained its highest point when the Jay treaty came 
before the country, and the denunciation hurled against 
the treaty party was not intended to leave the President 
untouched. That the public mind should be deeply 
stirred on the subject of the treaty was only natural, 
for the treatment which the feeblest and most contempt- 
ible States now receive from the strongest and most 
unscrupulous is honourable fairness itself when compared 
with the indignities and injuries which Great Britain 
inflicted upon the United States from the time of the 
treaty of peace until the close of the war of 1812. Our 
feebleness compelled us to endure an almost complete 
deprivation of international rights, and as long as the 
Confederation existed England had as a good reason 
for her contemptuous attitude the knowledge that our 
flimsy union could not long endure under our system of 
Government. When the break up should come she had 
every reason to hope that some, if not all, the States 
would return to the allegiance which they had held for 
a hundred years. When the Constitution was put into 
operation we were indeed a nation, but one tottering 
from very infancy, and safe to be insulted by a Power 
old, relentless and powerful. 

Accordingly Great Britain continued to hold the 
frontier posts, which, under the terms of the treaty of 
peace, she had promised to surrender. In consequence, 
the neighbouring Indian tribes were under her jurisdiction 
and in a state of hostility to American settlers. The 
settlement of the frontier territory was retarded, some 

223 



224 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

of the pioneers were killed, and the lives of the others 
were in constant jeopardy, while the sovereignty of the 
United States was insulted on its own territory. Ameri- 
can ships under the American flag on the high seas were 
searched by British ships. Our sailors were impressed 
into the British service, cargoes and ships were seized 
and treated as prizes taken from an enemy. Great 
Britain closed her West Indian ports to our ships, and 
kept the carrying trade of those islands to herself, al- 
though their principal imports came from the United 
States. 

In the face of these conditions three things could be 
done. We could continue to endure what was prac- 
tically a state of commercial vassalage to Great Britain ; 
we could go to war, but the outcome would probably 
be a failure of the objects of the war, and possibly the 
loss of our independence itself; we could retaliate by 
withdrawing from England every privilege which she 
denied us; we could discriminate against her ships and 
products and injure her as she injured us. Retaliation 
was not a strong weapon, because it could not touch an 
important part of the American grievances. It was 
objectionable, too, because to stop trading with your 
enemy is to stop your profits as well as his; but it was 
better than war, or continued submission. It was the 
policy which Madison had advocated at the first session 
of the first Congress. 

He revived it in a set of resolutions submitted to Con- 
gress, January 3, 1794, when the report from Jefferson 
on the privileges and restrictions of American commerce 
came up,* and his action was greeted with hearty com- 
mendations. A number of masters of American vessels 
detained at Jamaica wrote to thank him and commend 
his plan as soon as they heard of it. General Gates 
called him the coming man of America, and the Repub- 
lican Society of Charleston, S. C, passed resolutions 
in praise of "citizen Representative Madison. "f 

* Rives, III, 383, ct scq. 
t Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 225 

In Congress the chief argument against the resolutions 
came from Smith of South Carohna, but it was commonly- 
believed that Hamilton inspired the speech. The strength 
of the argument was that retaliation, if carried out, 
would cause England to go to war with us, or invoke 
even harder commercial measures against us. There 
was, therefore, nothing for us to do, but wait until we 
were more powerful and could resist. In his reply Mad- 
ison said we consumed double as much of Great Britain's 
goods as she did of ours, and to make reprisals would 
injure her more than it would ourselves. Her manu- 
factures would not be sold to us, nor our raw material 
to her. The idea of war resulting from the policy of 
retaliation was ridiculous. It was the same system 
of reciprocity which Great Britain practised herself. 
He reminded Congress that after the treaty of peace 
had been made Pitt had introduced a bill in Parliament 
putting trade with America upon a reciprocal basis, 
supposing the United States would follow a like course; 
but when Lord Sheffield showed that there was no central 
authority in America to regulate commerce, Pitt had 
withdrawn his bill. The necessary authority had now 
been established by the Constitution and should be 
put to use. 

Some members thought Madison's plan too spiritless, 
and proposed further negotiations with Great Britain, 
and, if they failed, a resort to arms. ]\Iadison replied 
that negotiations had already failed and that war would 
be most imprudent at present. Why not, he asked, 
try "commercial weapons"? Great Britain was more 
vulnerable in her commerce than she was in her army 
and navy. She valued our markets very much more 
than she feared our frigates and militia. 

A test vote in Committee of the Whole showed that 
the House favoured the use of the " commercial weapons " ; 
but before the question came up in the House the situa- 
tion was changed by rumours of fresh outrages on Ameri- 
can commerce by British cruisers. They were soon con- 



2 26 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

firmed by the publication of the British instructions 
dated Nov. 6, 1793, and by accounts of seizures and con- 
demnations imder them in the West Indies. Madison 
wrote Jefferson on March 12, 1794, that a hundred vessels 
had been thus seized, but he underestimated, for the 
Annual Register for 1794 reported the number a 
few months later at six hundred. The opportunity 
was favourable for introducing bold measures, and 
Sedgwick proposed that a provisional army of 15,000 
men be raised to serve three years from the commence- 
ment of war, if war should be declared, and that the 
President be impowered, "to lay an embargo generally, 
or particularly, upon ships in the ports of the United 
States, for a term not exceeding, at any one time, forty 
days." The measure was identified by Madison as 
coming from Hamilton, and he said was intended to 
strengthen the power of the central Government. When, 
however, its military features were dropped he consented 
to withdraw his milder proposition, in favour of the more 
vigorous retahation. The House then eliminated the 
President's agency in the embargo and declared for one 
immediately for thirty days. Even more drastic meas- 
ures of retaliaition were introduced and were pending, 
when Washington announced his intention of sending 
a special mission to England. He had a short time 
before informed Congress of a slight mitigation of the 
British instructions, which offered some hopes of further 
relaxations, — "so that," Madison said, "Great Britain 
seems to have derived from the very excess of her aggres- 
sions a title to commit them in a less degree with im- 
punity. " 

On April 16 Jay, then Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court, was nominated as Minister to England, and the 
plans of retaliation were all dropped by the House in 
favour of a substitute offered by Madison, to the effect 
that the injuries suffered made it expedient that the 
commercial intercourse with Great Britain should be 
less extensive than it then was, and, therefore, that after 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 227 

November i following, the importation of British 
merchandise should be suspended. The House agreed 
to this by a vote of 58 to 34, but it was defeated in the 
Senate by the casting vote of the President. Nothing 
more was attempted and the country waited for the 
result of the mission. 

Jay carried with him instructions of a positive char- 
acter. He was to demand compensation for British 
spoliations of American commerce and that provisions 
should not be considered as contraband of war, except 
when an attempt was made to introduce them into a 
place actually besieged. He was to insist upon an 
immediate surrender of the frontier posts and compen- 
sation for the negroes carried off in violation of the treaty. 
If these matters could be satisfactorily arranged he 
might negotiate a commercial treaty on a basis of reci- 
procity in navigation and trade regulations. If they 
could not be arranged he was to sign no treaty, but to 
report to his Government for further instructions. 

While the country waited for news of the result of 
Jay's mission the British outrages continued, and Gov- 
ernor Simcoe of Upper Canada, invading the United 
States with three British regiments, built a fort on Ameri- 
can soil at the rapids of the Miami, and ordered an Ameri- 
can settler away. Then a part of the correspondence 
between Lord Grenville, the British Minister, and Jay 
found its way into the newspapers and Jay's tone was 
so mild that it caused disgust among the French party, 
especially in the South, where he was already unpopular 
because of his willingness in 1786 to abandon the Ameri- 
can right of navigating the Mississippi. ]\Iadison said 
Jay's memorial was humiliating, but thought his mission 
might succeed, because the military successes of the 
French would be apt to make England more conciliatory 
than she had been. 

Congress adjourned March 7, and three days later 
the treaty arrived, having been signed November 19. The 
Senate was convened for June 8 to consider it. Strict 



228 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

secrecy was enjoined, but, of course, the terms of the 
treaty leaked out. Madison had an accurate knowledge 
of them by a very simple means. Pierce Butler, the 
Senator from South Carolina, wrote to him June 12,* 
that he would send him by each post a sheet of the treaty 
till he should have the whole. Having read it he was 
to forward it to Jefferson, who was not to communicate 
it to any one. Madison was asked to give Butler the 
benefit of his free opinion of the treaty. By a bare 
two-thirds the Senate ratified it. The injunction of 
secrecy was not removed, but the public w^as to be per- 
mitted to know the substance of the treaty, although 
no copy of any part of it was to be given out. Stevens 
Thomson Mason, a Senator from Virginia, violated the 
injunction and gave the text of the treaty to a Phila- 
delphia newspaper, which printed it June 30, only a 
day before Washington had determined it should be 
made public property. A combination of circumstances 
condemned it from the start, but, as we have seen, the 
leaders of the opposition knew its provisions before the 
public did and had time to plan a campaign. 

Nevertheless, the treaty was a bad one, and the utmost 
that can be said in its favour is that it was probably the 
best obtainable and that it was better than war, and 
Jay probably did as well as any one else could have done 
under the circumstances. Concerning the frontier posts 
it provided that they must be evacuated by June i, 1796, 
but in the treaty of peace their immediate evacuation 
was promised. The American contention that free 
ships should make free goods was disappointed by a pro- 
vision that French goods in American bottoms might 
be seized by Great Britain. The list of contraband 
goods instead of being restricted was enlarged to include 
whatever served to equip a vessel, and provisions might 
be confiscated, subject to a claim by the owner for their 
value to be adjudicated in a British port by a British 
court. An equality of France and England in bellig- 

*Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 229 

erent rights was rendered impossible, because under 
our treaty with France British goods in an American 
vessel could not be seized. Not a word did the treaty 
say about the impressment of American seamen or the 
surrender of those already impressed. The West Indian 
trade was to be opened only to small American vessels 
of not more than seventy tons burden, carrying cargoes 
from the United States alone. Provision was made 
for a commission to determine the amount of indemnity 
due the United States for British spoliations, and in 
return for this one act of simple justice the United States 
was to assume the payment of British debts in America. 
The effect of the treaty Madison declared in a letter 
to Chancellor Livingston, August 10, 1795, would be 
to "monopolize us to Great Britain," and prevent our 
making treaties that would be of advantage to us. The 
treaty was evidence that Jay's party was a "British 
party, systematically aiming at an exclusive connection 
with the British Government, and ready to sacrifice 
to that object as well the dearest interests of our com- 
merce as the most sacred dictates of national honour. " 
Livingston replied: "Our disgrace and humiliation 
have in this instance, greatly exceeded my expectations. " 
He thought the treaty abandoned the rights of the United 
States and that it was the duty of every well-wisher 
of his country to prevent its ratifications.* 

Certainly the people of the country left no doubt that 
they did not wish its ratification. Samuel Adams and 
other prominent Bostonians imited in a town meeting 
to denounce it. In New York Hamilton and his friends 
were roughly handled at a public meeting where con- 
demnatory resolutions were passed. At Philadelphia 
a mob burned a copy of the treaty before the British 
Legation. Public micetings in almost every town North 
and South denounced the treaty, while from the New 
York Chamber of Commerce and a few other commercial 
bodies came the only words in its favour. 
* Dept. of State MSS. 



230 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

It was evident that Washington did not relish the 
treaty. After he received it he waited three months 
before he gave it to the Senate. After its ratification 
he held it a long time, in doubt, apparently, whether 
to proclaim it or destroy it. The people, it was said, 
stood three to one against it, but the Cabinet was three 
to one in its favour. It was an Administration measure 
and the President shared in the odium it excited. John 
Beckley wrote to Madison from Philadelphia, September 
lo, 1795 : " You can have no idea how deeply the public 
confidence is withdrawing itself from the President, and 
with what avidity strictures on his conduct are received ; 
sensible of this, his friends are redoubling their efforts 
to exalt his name and exaggerate his past services — But 
all in vain, the vital blow aimed at the Independence 
& best Interests of his country by the impending treaty, 
mark him in indelible characters as the head of a British 
faction, and gratitude no longer blinds the public mind." 

When the new Congress met, December 7, 1795, the 
Republicans were still in a majority, and Madison was 
as usual made chairman of the committee to prepare 
an answer to the President's speech. His colleagues 
were Sedgwick and Sitgreaves, both Federalists, and 
they proposed a clause in the answer expressing the 
"undiminished confidence of his fellow-citizens in the 
President." Madison objected to this clause in com- 
mittee, not only because he considered it too strong 
under the circumstances, but because he foresaw that 
it would be bitterly opposed if it were presented in the 
House. He prepared an adroit substitute, which was 
adopted: "In contemplating that spectacle of national 
happiness which our country exhibits, and of which you, 
sir, have been pleased to make an interesting summary, 
permit us to acknowledge and declare the very great share 
which your zealous and faithful services have contributed 
to it, and to express the affectionate attachment which 
we feel for your character." There was no mention 
in Washington's speech of the treaty, because it had 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 231 

not yet been proclaimed ; but it was a sharp commentary 
upon the changed condition of affairs brought about 
by party feeling, that the House of Representatives was 
not willing to declare its "undiminished confidence" 
in George Washington. 

The latter part of February he received word of the 
ratification of the treaty by Parliament and on the last 
day of the month he proclaimed it. It had been nego- 
tiated by an envoy clothed with full powers ; it had been 
ratified, with an amendment by the United States Senate, 
and the amendment had been agreed to by the British 
Government; the ratifications had been exchanged and 
the proclamation now made the treaty law. On March i 
the President sent a copy of it to each House of Congress. 
In the House it was referred to the Committee of the 
Whole and taken up for consideration ]\Iarch 7. The 
fight against it was led by a new light in national politics. 
Edward Livingston had just taken his seat in Congress 
for the first time, and at once sprang into the front rank 
among the Republicans of the North. With ready and 
forceful argumentative ability, of radical and fearless 
political thought, accomplished as scholar and jurist, 
he seemed destined to play a conspicuous part upon the 
stage for years to come. His first act called up the only 
serious conflict of authority between the Executive and 
the Legislative that occurred during Washington's admin- 
istration. He moved that the President be requested 
to send to the House copies of the instructions given 
Jay when he went to England as Minister and of the 
correspondence had with him during the progress of the 
negotiations of the treaty, except such papers as any 
pending negotiations might render it improper to dis- 
close. Madison offered an amendment asking only for 
"so much of the said papers as, in the judgment of the 
President, it may be consistent with the interests of the 
United States at this time to disclose," but this peaceful 
modification was rejected, the FederaHsts voting against 
it, because they did not approve of any request for papers. 



232 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

and a few Republicans joining them, because they wanted 
the resolution to be as objectionable to the Adminis- 
tration as possible. The arguments for and against 
Livingston's resolution were interesting because the 
question involved has not yet been definitely settled 
beyond dispute. 

The Federahsts said a bold attempt was being made 
to encroach upon the prerogatives of the President and 
the Senate who were the treaty-making power. Treaties 
made by them were "the supreme law of the land," 
and the House had nothing to do with the question of 
how they were made. It was the duty of Congress to 
obey the law and pass such legislation as a treaty required 
to carry it into execution. 

The Republicans replied that the Constitution vested 
in Congress certain prerogatives, among them being 
the right to regulate commerce, raise revenue and 
appropriate it. The general power of the Executive 
and Senate to make treaties could not supersede this 
particular authority. Whenever, therefore, a treaty 
required Congressional action to make it effective, Con- 
gress was bound to deliberate before enacting and to ask 
for information to assist its deliberations. The power 
to make treaties was not claimed, but the power to carry 
them out was insisted upon. The leading advocates 
of this view were Livingston, Gallatin, who had recently 
taken his seat as a member from Pennsylvania, Samuel 
Smith of Maryland, and the Virginia members, Nicholas, 
Page and Brent, with Madison to lead them. The other 
side had Sedgwick of Massachusetts, Vans Murray of 
Maryland, Smith and Harper of South Carohna. After 
three weeks' debate the call for the papers was agreed 
to March 24 by a vote of 62 to 37. On the 30th the Pres- 
ident's reply was received, refusing categorically to 
comply with the request, because it was an interference 
with the rights of the treaty-making power, which did 
not include the House of Representatives, 

"The absolute refusal," wrote Madison, "was as 



LIFE OF Jx\MES MADISON 233 

unexpected as the tone and tenor of the message are 
improper and indeHcate. "* He attributed its avithor- 
ship, of course, to Hamilton. 

When the message came before the Committee of the 
Whole, Blount of North Carolina offered resolutions, 
composed by Madison, briefly reaffirming as the sense 
of the House the arguments already made by the Repub- 
licans. Madison made a long speech in favour of the 
resolutions, supposing that they would be debated ; 
but when the House met the day after his speech, to 
his surprise no arguments were made on the other side 
and the resolutions were passed by a vote of 57 to 35. 
Six members came in after the vote was taken and asked 
that they be added to the majority, but under the rules 
this could not be done. April 15, the treaty came up 
again, Madison making the chief speech against it and 
Ames replying. April 29, the necessary provision for 
the execution of the treaty was passed in Committee 
of the Whole by the casting vote of Muhlenberg, the 
Speaker. One Republican member was absent, another 
sick-, but Madison noted with dismay that the ranks 
of his party were breaking. f The next day, April 30, 
the House confirmed the action of the committee by 
a vote of 51 to 48. Ten members who had voted for 
Madison's resolutions now voted to put the treaty in 
operation. The defeat was a most serious one and 
marked a turn of the tide against the Republicans. The 
people were back of the majority, for the impression had 
got abroad that the House wished to bring about war, 
and they rallied to the cry "to follow where Washington 
leads." Strangely enough it was in New England that 
this cry was the strongest and in the South where it was 
weakest. The only Southern members who changed 
their votes were three from Maryland. The Virginia 
members stood in solid array against the Virginia Pres- 

* To Jefferson, April 4, 1796, " Works " (Cong. Ed.) II, 90. 
t "Works," (Cong. Ed.) II, 94. 



234 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

ident. The result was a peculiar one. The House had 
reaffirmed its position and then receded from its action. 
A situation exceedingly awkward not to say dangerous 
had been relieved, and no principle had been settled. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE NATIONAL GAZETTE 

The principal newspaper organ of the Anti-Federalists 
until Jefferson left the Cabinet was The National Gazette 
edited by Philip Freneau and established largely at 
Madison's instigation. The chief Federalist organ was 
The United States Gazette with John Fenno for editor. 
Fenno's prospectus when he moved his paper from New 
York to Philadelphia in the autumn of 1790 said: 

"At this important crisis, the ideas that fill the mind, 
are pregnant with events of the greatest magnitude— to 
strengthen and complete the union of the States — to 
extend and protect their commerce — to explore and ar- 
range the national funds — to restore and establish the 
public credit— Will require the energies of the patriots 
and sages of our country."* 

Freneau announced his purpose: 

" In this paper the Editor engages to support, as far 
as a newspaper can with propriety be supposed to support, 
the great principles upon which the American Revolution 
was founded, a faithful adherence to which can alone 
preserve the blessings of liberty to this extensive empire 
— an empire, in which the grand experiment is now mak- 
ing, whether or not the assertion of certain European 
philosophers be true, that a pure republic can never sub- 
sist for any length of time, except in a very limited extent 
of territory.'' 

Hamilton himself sometimes attacked the Anti-Federal- 
ists over a pseudonym through Fenno's columns, and 
Madison wrote a number of unsigned articles for Freneau, 
but they were all short philosophical or political dis- 

* The National Gazette, November 3, 1790. 

235 



236 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

quisitions dealing in no personal abuse. Freneau's tone 
was really taken from Jefferson and the object of the 
paper was to counteract the effect of The United States 
Gazette, which it soon outstripped in abuse and vitup- 
eration of those with whom it differed. 

Philip Freneau, a New Yorker of Huguenot descent, 
was at Princeton with Madison, and was one of the most 
popular youths of his class. He had in an extraordinary 
degree the qualities to make him a success among under- 
graduates, for he was quick, bright, versatile and witty. 
He could speak easily, he was full of enthusiasms, and 
he wrote poetry by the yard. As he entered college 
in 1 77 1, the same year in which Madison graduated, 
there was no opportunity for prolonged college intimacy 
between them, but Madison liked the warm-hearted 
ornamental poetaster, probably because he possessed 
the very qualities which Madison himself did not have, 
or at any rate did not cultivate. Freneau on his side 
admired the great scholar and esteemed it a privilege to 
form one of his circle, and so the two became devoted 
friends for life. From Princeton Freneau went into a 
Maryland family at Havre de Grace as private tutor and 
opened a correspondence with Madison. He described 
himself as teaching all day and writing poetry all night 
and his first letters were enlivened by many impromptu 
rhymes.* He had just published a volume of poems, one 
being, as he expressed it, "to the Nymph I never saw," 
and another entitled "The American Village," which 
was "damned by all good and judicious judges." "It 
is now late at night," he went on, "not an hour ago I 
finished a little poem of about 400 lines, entitled a Jour- 
ney to Maryland. I intend to write a terrible Satir upon 
certain vicious persons of quality in N. Y. — who have 
also used me ill— and print it next fall — it shall contain 
5 or 600 Lines — Sometimes I write pastorals to show 
my wit. " He was then five weeks less than twenty-one 
years of age and said he was already "stiff with age." 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 237 

He was a charming fellow, doomed, like others of his kind, 
to literature, journalism and material failure. He took 
to a seafaring life, lost his privateer The Aurora in the 
Revolution, was captured by the British and confined on 
one of the prison ships in New York harbour till July, 
1780.* He afterwards pubhshed ntmierous editions of 
his poems, which posterity now reads with more curiosity 
than admiration, but his contemporaries liked them and 
called him " The Poet of the Revolution. " 

In the summer of 1791 Freneau announced to his 
friends his purpose of starting a newspaper in New Jersey, 
and Madison and Henry Lee, also a Princeton man and 
friend of Freneau's, had little difficulty in inducing him 
to bring his paper to Philadelphia, and both of them acted 
for him in securing subscribers.! ]\Iadison had before 
this recommended him for employment in the Govern- 
ment service and now proposed to Jefferson to appoint 
him a translator of French in the State Department. J 
It was not supposed that his duties would require more 
than a part of his time, for his salary was fixed at $250 
a year, which was half of the amount paid the regular 
clerks in the department. This pittance was, however, 
a desirable certainty to accompany the uncertainty of 
editing a newspaper, but it cannot justly be called a sub- 
sidy for the editor. The first number of The Gazette j 
appeared October 31, 179 1. It had a four-column page, 
and did not differ in make-up from Fenno's paper, except 
that it was even w^orse printed. It came out Monday 
and Thursday mornings, while Fenno's Gazette appeared > 
on Wednesdays and Saturdays. There was a summary 
of the proceedings of Congress, several extracts from 
private letters from different parts of the country and 
abroad, translations from The Leyden Gazette, official 
announcements, a few advertisements, and usually an 

* See " Philip Freneau, the Poet of the American Revolution." 
t Dept. of State MSS. 

% Madison to Edmund Pendleton, September 13, 1792, " Madison's 
Works" (Cong. Ed.) I, 569. 



238 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

essay. One appeared in the first number by C. W. Peale, 
the painter, entitled "An Account of a Person Born a 
Negro, or a Very Dark Mulatto Who Afterwards Became 
White;" November 17 Thomas Paine had an article on 
the mint, and three days later Madison had one on " Pop- 
ulation and Emigration." Thus far the paper was mild 
mannered, although it gave unusual prominence to all 
reports emanating from the State Department. On 
December 8, however, it printed a piece signed "Ameri- 
canus, " which attacked some of the Administration's 
acts, and this was followed by other communications 
of the same tenor, levelled especially against the funding, 
assumption and bank laws, and the Secretary of the 
Treasury. Side by side with the long articles which 
were generally able and well prepared were brief para- 
graphs by Freneau which were scurrilous without being 
clever. Much of this literature of vituperation was, 
however, in reply to articles of like characteristics on the 
other side, and it is only fair to say that Freneau dis- 
closed no official secrets in his paper and displayed no 
facilities for information greater than were at the com- 
mand of any one not connected with the Government. 
Of course, when the proper time came Fenno accused 
him of being subsidized by Jefferson. "Quere," he 
said, "whether this salary is paid him for translations; 
or for publications, the design of which is to vilify those 
to whom the voice of the people has submitted the ad- 
ministration of our public affairs," etc; to which, in the 
issue of July 28, 1792, Freneau replied that the "vile 
sycophant" who thus unjustly accused him received 
greater public emoluments than he from the Government 
printing which was given him in order that he might 
"poison the minds of the people:" and so on in the style 
since rendered classic by the two editors of Eatonswill. 

In September, 1792, Fenno attacked Madison for pat- 
ronizing Freneau, but Madison regarded the charge with 
indifference, and never concealed his agency in bringing 
Freneau to Philadelphia. Freneau was appointed trans- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 239 

lator, August 16, 1791, a few months before The Gazette 
appeared; he resigned October, 1793, soon after Jefferson's 
retirement, and The Gazette stopped pubhcation at the 
end of that month. While it lasted Washington dis- 
liked its attacks upon his administration extremely, and 
plainly hinted to Jefferson that he ought to dismiss 
Freneau from the servdce, but he was useful to Jefferson 
and was retained. Jefferson declared to Washington in 
writing and with great solemnity that beyond furnishing 
Freneau with copies of The Leyden Gazette, so that 
the public might have good European news, he neither 
wrote himself nor prompted others to write a line for The 
Gazette, "^ but Jefferson had the talent of inspiring 
others to do what he wished done without making a 
direct request. But the articles in The Gazette always 
spared Washington himself, and there is every reason to 
believe that Jefferson and Madison were in the main 
satisfied with the result of their effort to establish an 
Anti-Federal paper. 

When The National Gazette ceased publication its 
place was soon filled by a number of party sheets which 
far outstripped it in foulness, and the press became 
furiously, recklessly violent in tone. " Peter Porcupine" 
(Corbett) led for the FederaHsts. On vSeptember 27, 1797, 
he thus wrote of a Republican Congressman: "This 
is one of the most infamous wretches that ever existed. 
He now stands charged with purloining the property of 
children, whose father he visited on his death-bed; yet 
this man is a member of Congress. " Benjamin Franklin, 
the grandfather of Corbett's editorial enemy, Benjamin 
Franklin Bache, he alluded to pleasantly as "a crafty 
and lecherous old hypocrite." Bache in The Aurora 
spoke thus of Corbett: "He has not only condescended 
to publish in his own paper, that he is a liar and a scoun- 
drel, but has contrived to get himself flogged for being 
actually both. " Editors frequently engaged in personal 
encoimters, and certainly they deserved their floggings. 

* " Jefferson's Writings "II, io6. 



240 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

]\Iost of them were foreigners newly arrived in America. 
"Peter Porcupine" had recently come from England, 
about the same time with Thomas Cooper of The 
Reading (Pa.) Advertiser; Callendar of The Richmond 
Recorder was a Scotchman; Bache of The Aurora 
was, it is true, an American, but upon his death in 1798 
his place was taken by William Duane, born as it happened 
in America, but spending his life, until he came to Phila- 
delphia to take part in public affairs, in Ireland, his 
parents' country.* 

These newspapers were a cause and an effect of partisan 
bitterness. Their lurid tones were not too strong for 
their readers, and at the same time fanned the flames of 
the readers- hate. To quench or subdue a fire so ob- 
noxious and dangerous was undoubtedly a thing to be 
desired. The chief offenders were in Philadelphia, be- 
cause it was the capital. The Republicans were strong 
in the Middle States and the Federalists were strong in 
South Carolina and Maryland. The stronghold for 
Federalism was, however. New England, and the strong- 
hold for Republicanism was, broadly speaking, the 
South. 

* Wharton's " State Trials " gives a number of extracts from their 
newspapers, 24, n. 



CHAPTER XXV 

DOLLY PAYNE 

It is not strange that the East and South should have 
so frequently found themselves in opposition on public 
questions, for their industries, products, climate and 
traditions were different. Moreover, the leaders of 
thought in either section had little personal knowledge of 
the other section, and more of them had been to Europe 
than had travelled extensively in their own coimtry. 
The prejudice of the East against the South and of the 
South against the East was thus based partly upon ignor- 
ance. 

"A human life, I think," says George Eliot, "should 
be well rooted in some spot of a native land, where it may 
get the love of tender kinship for the face of earth." 
Such a kinship existed for Americans of the time of which 
we are writing to an extraordinary degree, for they were 
nearly all countrymen. It existed especially for the 
Virginians, whose family associations tied them to their 
plantations. There their fathers had lived, and there 
they expected their sons to live. They constituted a 
landed aristocracy, a privileged order which governed 
the State. 

Fine types of the class were Jefferson, Madison and 
Monroe, the two former with splendid inherited farms 
of baronial extent, and Monroe bending his energies to 
the establishment of a similar estate. It was after the 
parties formed in Congress and Jefferson became the 
leader of the Republicans, that the three Virginians made 
a league and became the three musqueteers of American 
pubHc life. Henceforth they acted together on all ques- 
tions and guarded each other's interests with perfect 

241 



242 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

watchfulness and faithfulness. Aladison and Monroe 
put Jefferson's interests as paramount to their own; 
Monroe was not the equal of the other two in knowledge 
or influence and he was disturbed by jealousy of Madison 
when the question of Jefferson's successor in the Pres- 
idential chair was under consideration, but the regular 
co-operation of the three went on, although, of course, 
they had never agreed to form an alliance. 

It does not appear that Monroe ever went to New 
England until he was President and made his famous tour, 
and Jefferson and Madison were mature men with well- 
settled political convictions, when they took a glimpse of 
New England for the first time in a three-weeks' journey, 
from May 20 to June 16, 1791, during a recess of Con- 
gress.* 

While Congress sat in New York they lived near one 
another in Maiden Lane, Jefferson having a house and 
Madison boarding with Mrs. Dorothy Ellsworth, the wife 
of Mr. Verdine Ellsworth. Most of the members of Con- 
gress were obliged to put up with narrow accommodations, 
but Mrs. Ellsworth's appears to have been a pleasant 
place, and her table was popular with members of Con- 
gress. Madison was on good terms with her, and was 
permitted to owe her part of his board when it was in- 
convenient for him to pay it all, and even to borrow from 
her and use her as a sort of banker. He kept a servant 
and a horse and there is no reason to believe he fared 
badly, t 

It was different when the Government moved back 
to Philadelphia. Yellow fever had ravaged the city 
and people were afraid to live in it, the officers of the 
Government and members of Congress preferring to live 
in Germantown. There Jefferson and ]\ionroe succeeded 
in getting one room with two beds in it, and when Madison 
came they took him in. They breakfasted at their lodg- 
ings and dined at a tavern across the street. They were 

* " Jefferson's Writings " (Ford) V, 340. 
t Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES .MADISON 243 

better accommodated than many others, who found diffi- 
cuhy in getting even half beds. When the yellow fever 
subsided there was a general movement back to Phila- 
delphia and a dispersion among the taverns and boarding 
houses of that city. A deep gloom hung over the city, 
and there were many more vacant rooms to let than there 
had been the year before. 

Among the boarding houses was one presided over 
by a Quakeress widow, .Mrs. John Payne, and her daugh- 
ter, Dolly Payne, whom the yellow fever had also left a 
widow, her husband, John Todd, having died October 24, 
and her infant son a few weeks before. Into Mrs. Payne's 
lodgings was received the Senator from New York, Aaron 
Burr. He and Madison had been at Princeton together, 
but not of the same set, for Burr was prominent in the 
Cliosophic Society, and Madison a founder of the American 
Whig Society, and about these two rival organizations 
clustered the social life of the college. When they met 
m public service membership in the same political party 
drew them together, but there is nothing to indicate that 
they were ever on terms of friendship. Their natures 
were antipathetic to each other. Madison was a genuine 
man, of deep learning acquired because he loved it. 
There was no false note, no evil tendency, no cynicism or 
flippancy in him. His mind was fearless, and he neither 
lied to others, nor deceived himself, nor fibbed, nor told 
white lies, nor drew the long bow. It is inexplicable that 
so intelligent and straightforward a man should not have 
correctly read Aaron Burr, whose character was not very 
complicated. He was simply a scoundrel, who held 
nothing in respect, because he found nothing to respect 
in himself. He hated Washington, hounded Hamihon 
to his death and sneered at Madison. He studied only 
for show and was all tinsel. He gambled with life, re- 
garding it as a game, and, as it happened, he was the 
agent who introduced Madison to life's greatest lottery, 
ni which Madison drew a prize. 

Although a hard-working man, Madison was not a 



244 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

recluse. He was a chess player at this time,* and he 
liked to mingle in the social life of Philadelphia. He 
saw and admired Burr's landlady's daughter, the widow 
Todd, and requested an introduction. In arranging for 
it Burr's agency in the matter appears to have begun 
and ended. Mrs. Todd had already heard of Madison 
as "the great little Madison," and she prepared for his 
visit with fluttering expectancy. Her husband had 
died only a few months before, but, being a Quakeress, 
she wore no mourning, and being young in years and 
naturally sunny-hearted she took life as she saw it about 
her and did not brood over that part of it which lay be- 
hind her. When she was an old woman she described 
herself to her friend Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith of Wash-j 
ington as follows: "My family are all Virginians excepts 
myself, who was born in N. Carolina, whilst my parents! 
were there on a visit of one year, to an Uncle. Their \ 
families on both sides were among the most respectable, 
and they, becoming members of the Society of Friends 
soon after their marriage, manumitted their slaves, and 
left this State for that of Pennsylvania, bearing with them 
their children to be educated in their religion — I believe 
my age at that time was 1 1 or 12 years — I was educated 
in Philadelphia where I was married to Mr. Todd in 1790 
and to Mr. Madison in '94, when I returned with him 
to the soil of my Father, and to Washington, where you 
have already traced me with the kindness of a sister. 
In the year '91, and after the death of my Father, my 
Mother received into her house some Gentlemen as 
boarders — and in '93 she left Philadelphia to reside with 
her daughter Washington — afterwards with my sister 
Jackson — and occasionally with me. "j 

"Her daughter Washington" was the wife of General 
Washington's nephew, George Steptoe Washington, of 
Harewood, near Charlestown, West Virginia, and at her 
house, September 15, 1794, by Rev. Dr. Balmaine, an 

* Dept. of State MSS. 

t Family papers of J. Henry Smith, Esq., of Washington, 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 245 

Episcopal clergyman of Winchester, a connection of 
Madison's. Dolly Payne Todd and James Madison were 
married after an engagement of about six months. She 
was only twenty-six years old and he was forty-three.* 
I hey made the long journey from Harewood to Mont- 
peher, and set up their estabhshmcnt in the old house at 
Montpeher, which Madison had enlarged and which was 
henceforth their home as well as the home of Madison's 
father and mother. 

She participated completely in her husband's life aild 
contributed to the success of his career, for she was 
troubled with no doubts about its being the one best 
suited to him. She liked Philadelphia and Montpelier 
and afterwards Washington. She was fond of the gaiety 
of the capital, but she created gaiety in the country Her 
disposition was warm, ardent and impressionable 
Her personality was sympathetic and charming Al- 
though she was Quaker bred she was the opposite of a 
yuaker in nature, and her bright complexion, healthy 
plumpness and ready laughter were Celtic rather than 
1 hiladelphian. She expanded in the congenial social 
atmosphere of Virginia and her husband enjoyed an 
extraordinary domestic felicity from the hour of his mar- 
nage to the hour of his death. His own temper was 
genial and serene ; he was never irritated and he did not 
worry about trifles. He took a keen interest in all the 
household arrangements and gave his wife perfect devo- 
tion. He owed her a great deal and she owed him every- 
thing. ■' 

Coming into the country of her husband, where a large 
number of the people were his relatives or connections 
and where she was herself an entire stranger, she was in 
a family atmosphere which was highly critical, and the 
country criticism did not decrease when it was observed 
that her estabhshmcnt was oftener of benefit to her rela- 
tions than her husband's, and hers were numerous and 

^^^* See Mrs. Wilder's "Dolly Madison - for an interesting account of her 



246 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

made frequent and long visits to Montpelier, and to the 
house in town. But no fault could be found by the 
Madisons with Mrs. Madison when they came in contact 
with her, for she treated them with a kindness which 
compelled their liking, and even when the querulousness 
of great age came upon her husband's old mother she 
had nothing but commendation and affection for her 
son's wife. * 

Being now a married man and graduated from the 
army of boarding-house and tavern victims Madison 
carried his wife back to Philadelphia for the session of 
Congress in the winter of 1794-95, and occupied the house 
in which ]\Ionroe had lived the year before. The next 
session he took a house on Spruce Street, between Fourth 
and Fifth Streets, belonging to James Gamble. It was 
of brick, three stories high, with two rooms on each floor, 
beside the kitchen, and there was a good yard and stable. 
He paid a rent of ;^2oo a year, and here he remained until 
he retired from Congressional service.! 

He had earned a rest and wanted to live the life which 
he craved above all others, and which he now regarded 
as completely satisfying his earthly wants. Dreams of 
bucolic felicity with his wife for a companion floated 
before him. He would improve Montpelier, indulge his 
taste for architecture, and become a scientific farmer. 
There would be ample opportunity for reading and pur- 
suing the non-political investigations which interested 
him so much. Visitors would come and go and he would 
not suffer from dulness. He would throw off the heavy 
burden of public care which he had borne for twenty 
years. During fourteen years of this time he had striven 
mightily to save the country from wreck, and being a 
man who looked the facts in the face and did not allow 
his desires to govern his beliefs, there had been many 
times when he thought his efforts would come to naught. 

* In Orange County, Va. , the recollection of Mrs. Madison is still vivid 
among members of the county families, 
t Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 247 

He had lived to see those efforts crowned with a success 
the glory of which he fully recognized. And, the Consti- 
tution having been adopted, the Union having been saved, 
a nation having been created, the results of the Revolution 
having been made splendid beyond his hopes, he found 
himself now one of a faction, engaged in partisan bicker- 
ing, the victim of injustice and himself unjust, harbouring 
the bitterness which party strife engenders. He was 
fighting against men who had formerly fought with him 
and over issues which were petty beside those of the days 
before the Constitution. He did not care for victory 
for victory's sake, nor for the applause which it brings. 
He was really weary of the fight . As he left Congressional 
service March 4, 1797, his friend Jefferson took it up as 
Vice-President and President of the Senate. 

More than a year before (in February, 1796) as soon as 
it became known that Washington would not serve for 
a third term, Madison announced to ]\Ionroe, who was 
in Paris, that the Republicans knew Jefferson was the only 
candidate whom they could hope to elect. He was afraid 
Jefferson would mar his candidacy by announcing an 
unwillingness to serve,* but no such announcement came, 
and when it became doubtful whether Jefferson would be 
the President or Vice-President, he wrote to him: " You 
must reconcile yourself to the secondary, as well as the 
primary station."! When Madison first broached the 
subject to Jefferson, the latter replied that he thought 
Madison himseff ought to be chosen for the Presidency, 
but Madison did not deem the subject worth considering, 
Jefferson being, as a matter of course, the choice of the 
Republicans. 

Adams was elected by a majority of two votes only. 
One elector from Pennsylvania, one from North Carolina, 
and one from Virginia voted for him. If the electoral 
votes of those States had been cast solidly Jefferson would 
have been the President, and there is no doubt that all 

*" Works" (Cong. Ed.) II, 83. 



248 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

three of the States, on a direct vote, would have voted 
for him. 

During the last session of Congress before his retirement 
Madison took little part in the proceedings. His party 
was in the minority, and the House was in control of 
extremists, who paid small regard to the minority's feel- 
ings or rights. When the session began, December, 1796, 
Washington addressed to it his last speech, but the com- 
mittee appointed to draft a reply had Fisher Ames as 
chairman instead of Madison, who during his entire 
Congressional service had always heretofore occupied 
this post of honour. He was placed on the committee, 
however, and agreed to the address submitted. It was 
his colleague Giles who made the motion to strike out 
the portions of the address which spoke of the wisdom 
of the Administration and expressed regret at Washing- 
ton's retirement and moved its recommitment for alter- 
ation ; and eight of the Virginia members moved to strike 
out the clause expressing the hope that Washington's 
example might be a guide to his successors, Madison, 
Nicholas, Page and Claiborne being the only ones who 
voted to retain the clause. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS 

From his retirement Madison watched the course of 
events at Philadelphia with intense and increasing solici- 
tude. His own party was in the minority. The pro- 
ceedings of Genet, the hideous excesses of the French 
Revolutionists, and finally the contemptuous treatment 
by Talleyrand of the American envoys, Marshall, Pinck- 
ney and Gerry, and his efforts to extract from them a 
bribe, combined to force many men out of the Republican 
into the FederaHst party more from lack of sympathy 
with the former than from real sympathy with the latter. 
But the Federalists were in power ; they had the President, 
the Senate and the House. In the Cabinet the Secretary 
of State was the most uncompromising Federalist of all. 
John Adams said of Timothy Pickering, after he had 
found him out : " Under the simple appearance of a bald 
head and straight hair, and under professions of profound 
republicanism, he concealed an ardent ambition,- envious 
of any superior and impatient of obscurity." He was 
devoted heart and soul to Alexander Hamilton's interests 
and indifferent to the interests and opinions of his chief. 
He did not, therefore, share Adams's desire to avail him- 
self of the " fine talents and amiable qualities and manners 
of Mr. Madison." Adams told Jefferson he would like 
to appoint Madison one of the envoys to adjust differences 
with France, but Jefferson said Madison would not go, 
as he had already refused foreign appointments on several 
previous occasions. Adams abandoned the idea for the 
additional reason that his Cabinet threatened to resign 
if Madison were nominated, and the FederaHst leaders of 
the Senate said they would reject the nomination, if it 

249 



2 50 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

came before them. Alexander Hamilton, taking a 
broader view of public policy than his followers did, 
favoured Madison's selection, but no appointment was 
offered him, and he would have declined it if it had been 
made, for he was perfectly honest in his desire to remain 
at home for a time. 

The Federalists now had control of the machinery with 
which to make laws and determined upon three radical 
measures to check the political activity of the ahens who 
were in the country and to curb the Hcentiousness of the 
press. The first of these laws was passed June i8, 1798, 
and related to the naturalization of aliens. It prescribed 
fourteen years as the probationary period of residence 
necessary before an ahen could be admitted to become 
a citizen of the United States. In the debate on the bill 
Harper of South Carolina said he thought no foreigner 
ought to be admitted to citizenship, and Otis of Mass- 
achusetts said that none should ever be permitted to hold 
ofifice. A few days later, June 25, the Alien act was 
passed. It gave the President power to expel from the 
United States any alien whose presence he might judge 
to be dangerous to the peace and safety of the United 
States, or whom he might suspect of treasonable or secret 
machinations against the Government. Masters of 
vessels were required to report to him all alien passengers 
brought by them into the country. 

A month later, July 14, the sedition law was passed. 
It provided that the printing, writing, or publishing of 
anything false, scandalous or mahcious against the Gov- 
ernment, President or Congress, or the stirring up of 
sedition against them, or the doing of anything to bring 
them into contempt, should constitute a criminal offeree 
punishable with fine and imprisonment. The desire 
for these acts originated with the leaders in Congress ; 
there was no popular demand for them ; they interpreted 
no popular movement ; they underwent no test before the 
people before they were enacted. Timothy Pickering 
was sorry they did not go further; Fisher Ames refused 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 251 

to trust John Marshall because he did not approve of 
them ; John Adams fully approved of them ; so did nearly 
all of the other Federalist leaders. 

As for the reception which the laws met among 
Republicans it need hardly be stated. All their prog- 
nostications of evils sure to result from the ascendancy 
of the Federalists seemed about to be fulfilled. Jefferson 
believed, or fancied he believed, or at any rate tried to 
make others believe, that the obnoxious laws were an 
experiment to see how much the people would stand and 
that if they were submitted to propositions for life tenure 
of the Presidency and hereditary succession would follow. 
He wrote in this sense "with unv/onted excitement," 
as Randall says, to Senator Mason, of Virginia, 
^§ September 26, 1789. J. Dawson, a follower of Madison's, 
wrote from the House of Representatives, July 5, 1798, 
before the sedition law had been passed, that it exceeded 
anything that had disgraced the history of any country 
pretending to be free. "What is to become of us," he 
added, " I cannot tell, but think we are certainly ruined, 
if the people do not come forward & exercise their 
rights. " 

Madison's own opinion was that a grave crisis in the 
liberties of the country had come and that it demanded 
concerted action on the part of the Republicans. Accord- 
ingly, under the lead of Jefferson there was a notable con- 
sultation between John Taylor of Carolina, the brothers 
George and Wilson Gary Nicholas, John Breckinridge 
and Madison, and it was determined to obtain from the 
Legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia declaratory resolu- 
tions against the Federal party's Constitutional tenets 
in general and against the Alien and Sedition laws in par- 
ticular ; and to invite the co-operation of the other States 
in asking for a repeal of those laws and a declaration that 
they were unconstitutional and consequently null and 
void. It was intended, also, that the declaration should 
be a warning to the dominant party that an attempt to 
carry out the programme, of which the alien and sedition 



252 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

laws were supposed to be only a part, would cause a 
revolt, peaceful if possible, but violent if necessary. 

The resolutions for the Kentucky legislation were 
drafted by Jefferson and amended by John Breckinridge, 
who introduced them in the Kentucky House where 
they were adopted by an almost unanimous vote.* Ken- 
tucky was a border State, fond of fighting and used to it, 
and indisposed to submit to authority when it became 
irksome. The Alien and Sedition laws had created a fer- 
ment among the people and the resolutions were radical 
enough to suit them. They declared that the Constitu- 
tion had been adopted by the States as States who 
must be the judges of when the Constitution had 
been broken; and that in case of the passage of an un- 
constitutional law the several States had a right to inter- 
pose and nullify such a law. The Alien and Sedition 
laws were denounced as unconstitutional. 

Madison had no hand in preparing the Kentucky resolu- 
tions and never saw them until after his own resolutions 
had been introduced, but there was, of course, an agree- 
ment beforehand that both Virginia and Kentucky should 
say substantially the same thing. Kentucky, however, 
went farther than Virginia did, and the time came when 
it was harder to explain the Kentucky resolutions than 
it was to explain those Madison had written. As Madison 
was not in the Legislature at the time, he gave the draft 
of his resolutions to John Taylor of Caroline, who sub- 
mitted it to the House without alteration. Madison was 
himself in doubt whether the State Legislatures were 
really the proper instruments for dealing with a Con- 
stitutional question, since they had not been permitted 
to ratify the Constitution, and he had insisted in the 
Constitutional Convention that it be not submitted to 
them ; but they had had a part in it, inasmuch as they 
had called the Federal Convention which framed it, and 
the State conventions which ratified it, so he suppressed 
his scruples and used the Legislature of Virginia for his 
purpose. 

* Warfield's "The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798." 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 253 

The Republicans of the State were in the majority, but 
there was a vigorous and respectable minority of 
Federalists, and the resolutions were adopted in the face 
of an ably conducted opposition. The vote was 100 to 63, 
and the temper of the Legislature was conservative as 
compared with the temper of the Kentucky Legislature. 
The draft prepared by Madison declared the Alien and 
Sedition laws "unconstitutional, null, void and of no 
effect, " but by general agreement the words " null, void, " 
etc., although really no more than strengthening repeti- 
tion, were stricken out as liable to misinterpretation. 
This was the only alteration made in Madison's draft. 
The resolutions were eight in number. The third said: 
"That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily 
declare that it views the powers of the Federal Govern- 
ment as resulting from the compact to which the States are 
parties, as limited by the plain sense and intention of the 
instrument constituting that compact; as no further 
vaHd than they are authorized by the grants enumerated 
in that compact; and that, in case of a deliberate, pal- 
pable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted 
by the said compact, the States, who are parties thereto, 
have the right and are in duty bound to interpose for arrest- 
ing^ the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within 
their respective limits the authorities, rights, and liberties 
appertaining to them.'' The fourth resolution expressed 
alarm at the spirit manifested in Congress of construing 
certain general phrases in the Constitution "so as to 
destroy the meaning and effect of the particular enumera- 
tion which necessarily explains and limits the general 
phrases; so as to consolidate the States by degrees, into 
one sovereignty, the obvious tendency, an "inevitable 
result of which would be to transform the present repub- 
lican system of the United States into an absolute, or, at 
best, mixed monarchy." The fifth resolution declared 
the AHen and Sedition laws "palpable and alarming" 
infractions of the Constitution. The Alien act exercised 
power in no place granted in the Constitution, the Sedition 



254 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

act exercised power expressly forbidden. The sixth 
resolution said that as Virginia [Madison himself] had 
proposed the amendment to the Constitution confirming 
the liberty of the press, it would be unbecoming if she 
should show indifference to a violation of the amendment. 
Resolution seven said: "That the good people of this 
Commonwealth, having ever felt and continuing to feel 
the most sincere affection for their brethren of the otlier 
States, the truest anxiety for establishing and perpetuat- 
ing the union of all and the most scrupulous fidelity to 
that Constitution, which is the pledge of mutual friend- 
ship, and the instrument of mutual happiness, the General 
Assembly doth solemnly appeal to the like dispositions 
of the other States, in confidence that they will concur 
with this Commonwealth in declaring, as it does hereby 
declare, that the aforesaid acts are unconstitutional ; and 
that the necessary and proper measures will be taken 
by each for co-operating with this State, in maintaining 
unimpaired the authorities, rights, and liberties reserved 
to the States respectively, or to the people. " The eighth 
resolution provided for sending the resolutions to the 
executives of the States for the Legislatures and to the 
Senators and Representatives of Virginia in Congress. 

On January lo, 1799, the Assembly resolved that the 
State would co-operate with the authorities of the general 
Government in maintaining the "independence, Union, 
and Constitution" against all foreign powers, and that 
it was a calumny to charge that any party in the State 
was under the influence of any foreign power ; that they 
beheld " with indignation " depredations on the commerce 
of the country, impressments of seamen, and other insults 
by foreign nations ; but that a standing army was unneces- 
sary and the policy of the United States forbade a war 
of aggression; that they would repel invasion at every 
hazard, but deplored the evils of war from any other 
cause. 

On January 23rd was adopted an address to the people 
of the State. It was a vigorous arraignment of the Alien 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 255 

and Sedition laws. Non-acquiescence in infractions of 
the Constitution was, it said, necessary, otherwise there 
would be a speedy consolidation, or upon repetition of the 
infractions a revolution by the people aroused "in the 
majesty of their strength." 

Madison was elected a member of the Legislature in 
the fall of 1799. All the RepubHcan members of the 
Virginia delegation in the National House of Represen- 
tatives had united in begging him to return to public life. 
They wrote to him from Philadelphia, February 7, 1799: 
"While the sentiments we entertain of your Talents, 
your experience & your Probity, have made your absence 
from the public councils, a subject of our very serious 
regret, our Confidence in the justness of your Motives 
assures us, that you stand completely justified. 

"At the same time the Growth & conduct of the execu- 
tive Party, since your retirement, have continued more 
& more to render the Inaction of republican Principles 
& Talents deplorable & injurious. 

" Our extreme SoHcitude to give energy to those virtues, 
in every possible direction, has urged us jointly to address 
you. We hope that obstacles to your serving in the 
State legislature, may be less imperious, than those by 
which you were withdrawn from that of the Union — it is 
quite needless to point out to yon, the powerful agency of 
wise and firm State measures in preserving the general 
government within the just Limits of the Constitution, 
which from the nature of things, it must be ever struggling 
to transcend: but our present position enables us to 
discover, perhaps more clearly, the perseverance & sticcess 
of those struggles. . . . 

"We should be wanting in the Social Duties we pro- 
fess, if we declined to invite you with earnestness, to take 
part in the councils of your State. 

" Pretensions founded as yours are, can scarcely fail of 
success— our utmxost aid, if it shall be in any way appli- 
able, and our ardent wishes will attend you in the ex- 
periment. " 



256 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

This was signed by Walter Jones, John Nicholas, Carter 
H. Harrison, Joseph Eggleston, Abraham B. Venable 
and Richard Brent.* 

The only replies to the Kentucky and Virginia resolu- 
tions ever made were dissenting resolutions from the 
Legislatures of the five New England States and New 
York and Delaware, and Madison wrote as a defence a 
report explanatory of the Virginia resolutions, which 
the Legislature adopted. The Constitution, it said, was, 
at the time its adoption was under discussion, constantly 
defended by the argument that the powers it did not 
express had been withheld from it, and the Twelfth 
amendment specifically expressed this. It was a com- 
pact between the States, meaning the people composing 
the several States in their highest sovereign capacity. 
That they had a right to interpose " in case of a deliberate, 
palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not 
granted by the said compact" seemed plain. "Where 
resort can be had to no tribunal superior to the authority 
of the parties, the parties themselves must be the rightful 
judges, in the last resort, whether the bargain made has 
been pursued or violated. " The resolutions, he went on, 
proposed such interposition only when the breach of the 
Constitution was deliberate, dangerous, and plain to all 
men, and only for the purpose of arresting the evil of 
usurpation. It was objected that the judicial authority 
should be construed as the sole expositor of the Con- 
stitution in last resort, but there might be forms of usur- 
pation that could never be drawn within the control of 
the judicial department, and furthermore "if the decision 
of the judiciary could be raised above the authority of 
the sovereign parties to the Constitution, the decisions of 
the other departments, not carried by the forms of the 
Constitution before the judiciary, must be equally author- 
itative and final with the decisions of that department." 
The resolutions related to "those great and extraordinary 
cases in which all the forms of the Constitution may prove 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 257 

ineffectual against infractions dangerous to the essential 
rights of the parties to it. " If the judiciary concurred 
in usurpation the subversion of the Government was 
complete. 

The resolutions and the report were welcomed by Madi- 
son's friends: "Your Report upon the Resolutions of 
the last assembly, " wrote Rev. James Madison, January 9, 
1800, "cannot be too highly estimated by every real 
Friend to free & rational Government; & particularly 
by those who are most attached to a federal Gov't — You 
have really swept the Augean Stable ; at least you have 
cleansed the Constitution from that Filth which ambition, 
avarice & Ignorance were heaping up around it. If the 
Doctrine respecting common Law; if the continued Ex- 
tension of the Powers of the federal Legislature, & federal 
executive; if also judicial subserviency to executive 
measures; if, too, the mad ambition of forming navies 
and standing armies, should prevail; or rather be the 
constant end & aim of all federal measures, it would not 
require the Spirit of Prophesy to foretell the Result. 
One or other of these evils must ensue. The Union will 
suffer a convulsive Death; or, we shall enjoy a quitmn 
serviiinm, than which I can safely say a thousand times 
malo periculosam libertatem.'^ 

The Virginia resolutions enunciated doctrines which 
]\Iadison had always advocated. One feature of the 
Virginia plan which he had unsuccessfully advocated in 
the Constitutional Convention lodged in the Federal 
Congress a right of negative over State laws and in a 
council a similar revision power over national laws, to 
curb legislative power. In the Federalist (No. XLIV) 
he pointed out that the danger of republican governments 
was to aggrandize the legislature at the expense of the 
other departments of government, and that whenever any 
one department encroached tipon another there should 
be an appeal to the people to declare the full meaning 
and enforce the observance of the charter of powers 
for "preventing and correcting infractions of the con- 



2 58 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

stitution." In the first Congress he was alarmed at the 
power assumed by Congress. "In truth," he wrote, 
"the legislative power is of such a nature that it scarcely 
can be restrained, either by the Constitution or by itself ; 
and if the Federal Government should lose its proper 
equilibrium within itself, I am persuaded that the effect 
will proceed from the encroachments of the Legislative 
Department." In 1792 Washington vetoed the act of 
Congress apportioning the Representatives among the 
several States, because it violated the Constitutional 
requirement that the apportionment be by population 
and not more than one to every 30,000 of inhabitants; 
and in 1794 the Supreme Court declared the act of March 
23, 1792, conferring upon United States courts jurisdic- 
tion over claims for invalid pensions to be unconstitu- 
tional, because it was an attempt to confer upon the court 
power which was hot judicial. Both of these checks upon 
Congressional powgr Madison com.mended as encouraging 
signs.* The Supreme Court had not yet, however, as- 
serted roundly the right to declare an act of Congress, 
not concerning the judiciary, unconstitutional, and did 
not do so until Marshall rendered his decision in the case of 
Marbury vs. Madison in 1803. 
*" Works" (Cong. Ed.) I, 554- 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE MADISON DOCTRINE AND NULLIFICATION 

Madison's explanatory report of the Virginia resolu- 
tions having been given to the world and a solemn protest 
against the Alien and Sedition laws having been re- 
corded by the Kentucky Legislature, the incident passed 
into history. John Adams never put the Alien 
law into operation, and no trial under the Sedition 
law took place in Kentucky ; but in Virginia the wretched 
James Thompson Callender was peacefully tried for 
printing a scurrilous article against the President and 
other Federalists. The judge was Samuel Chase, who 
had declared before the trial came off his determination 
to root up a reed so rank, and at another of the sedition 
trials this judge said he did not see on what authority 
the Supreme Court could declare an act of Congress un- 
constitutional.*' When the contest for the Presidency 
was being waged in 1800 Chase absented himself from 
the bench to stump Maryland for the Federalists, thereby 
leaving the court without a quorum; for Ellsworth, the 
Chief Justice, was absent as Minister to France. William 
Patterson, another judge, tried Matthew Lyon for sedi- 
tion and showed clearly enough his thorough sympathy 
with the obnoxious law. 

The Supreme Court was not at this time the calm, 
independent body it subsequently became, nor was it 
completely aloof from political or administrative affairs. 
John Jay, the first Chief Justice, acted as Secretary of 
State for nearly six months after his elevation to the 
bench. He was still Chief Justice when he negotiated 
the treaty with England which excited such furious party 

* Wharton's "State Trials," 42, ct scq. 

259 



26o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

discussion, and his effigy was frequently burned by those 
who did not Hke his political views. John Rutledge's 
nomination as Chief Justice was rejected in 1795 by a 
Federalist Senate purely on political grounds. For half 
the time that Ellsworth was Chief Justice he was absent 
from the bench serving as Minister to France, and to fill 
this office meant certain entanglement with political par- 
ties ; and John Marshall himself performed the duties of 
Secretary of State and Chief Justice at the same time. 
It was after Jefferson's election and Marshall's dominance 
of the Court began that its separate and superior functions 
operated and were recognized. 

There is grim humour in the fact that the next time the 
Virginia resolutions were invoked was by an assemblage 
of New England Federalists. The Hartford Convention 
of 1 8 14, called to protest against the measures of James 
Madison, President of the United States, used this language 
in the course of its report: 

"That acts of Congress in violation of the Constitution 
are absolutely void is an undeniable position. But in 
cases of deliberate, dangerous and palpable infractions of 
the Constitution, affecting the sovereignty of a State and 
liberties of the people, it is not only the right but the duty of 
such a State to interpose its authority for their protection in 
the manner best calculated to secure that end. When 
emergencies occur which are either beyond the reach of 
the judicial tribunals or too pressing to admit of the 
delay incident to their forms, States which have no 
common umpire must be their own judges and execute 
their own decisions." 

This adaptation of Madison's words passed with little 
notice at the time, the Hartford Convention being almost 
universally reprobated as a disloyal assemblage of mal- 
contents ; but if the malcontents merely threatened dis- 
union they were no worse than others before and after 
them. The truth is that before the question of the right of 
secession was definitely settled by the Civil War there 
was hardly an important question before Congress that 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 261 

did not arouse sectional jealousy and suggestions of dis- 
union from one side or the other. This cloud was always 
threatening in the sky and it assumed its stormiest aspect 
in 1828-32 when the Nullification Party formed in South 
Carolina. The doctrine advocated by that party, stripped 
of its philosophy and compressed into a simple sentence, 
was that each State had the right to judge of the constitu- 
tionality of acts of Congress, and whenever a State should 
decide that a Federal law was unconstitutional it had a 
right to interpose and nullify the law within its borders. 
It is necessary to glance at the nullification movement to 
understand what Madison really meant by his resolu- 
tions of 1798, for his last important writings, when he was 
over eighty years of age but still in undisputed possession 
of his mental faculties, were a vigourous explanation that 
the nullification doctrine was an absurd deduction from 
the Virginia declarations he had written.* 

These declarations were intended, he said, to solve the 
interesting question of what should be done in the event 
of controversies involving the partition line between the 
powers belonging to the Federal and State Governments. 
Manifestly the Supreme Court was the immediate pro- 
vision, but the ultimate resort was another thing, and 
the parties to the compact were the judges in last resort 
according to the Virginia resolutions. The South Caro- 
linians, he explained, charged that the majority was 
oppressing the minority through the forms of government, 
while the charge against the Alien and Sedition laws was 
that they were Government measures which violated the 
will of the constituents. When the Virginia resolutions 
were passed it was asserted by the dominant party that 
a State Legislature had no right to interpose even a 
legislative declaration against a national law, nor against 
an opinion of the Supreme Court. The resolutions were 
a protest against this theory. When bad laws were 
passed there were three remedies. First, the checks pro- 
vided in the constitution itself ; second, the ballot ; third, 

* Works (Cong. Ed.) IV, 204, et seq. 



262 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

an appeal to the power that made the Constitution, and 
consequently can explain, alter or unmake it. The 
resolutions invoked the third remedy. As the report 
adopted by the Legislature in explanation of the resolu- 
tions showed, they were at most declaratory and usurped 
none of the offices of the judiciary. They were an ex- 
pression of opinion, and asked for concerted action by the 
States to secure repeal of the obnoxious laws or an ex- 
planatory amendment to the Constitution; for it was 
an undisputed fact that while the Constitution was made 
by the people it was made by them as embodied in several 
States. The Virginia resolutions assumed that the 
States could interpose, notwithstanding a decision of the 
Supreme Court, as they were the parties to the Constitu- 
tion and paramount to it. But the resolutions always 
used the plural term States, and the interposition con- 
templated was not to be a single but a concurrent inter- 
position. A concert of action against a usurpation of 
power was the keynote to the movement. There could be 
no tribunal above the States, and they must be the ones 
to decide when the compact was violated; otherwise 
there could be no remedy for tyranny. The resolutions 
were an enunciation of first prinicples — of the sovereignty 
of the people over their Constitution. A great deal had 
been made of the fact that the Virginia Legislature had 
passed laws relating to an armoury and the preservation 
for members of the Legislature of the right of habeas 
corpus proceedings, as though they expected to be at- 
tacked. The Armoury law was, however, passed before 
the Alien and Sedition laws, and the Habeas Corpus law 
was a general one applicable to other as well as Federal 
arrests. South Carolina nullification Madison character- 
ized as nothing but " an anomalous conceit. " That any 
State could remain a party to the Constitution and nullify 
a law of the United States was simply absurd. The Gov- 
ernment was no mere power of attorney revocable at the 
will of one of the parties granting it. No State could at 
will secede from its constitutional compact with the other 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 263 

States; the others must consent, or there must be "an 
abuse of the compact absolving the seceding party from the 
obHgations imposed by it." No support for nulHfication, 
he said, could be extracted from Jefferson's writings. He 
spoke of it as a natural right, not a constitutional right. 
The Kentucky resolutions, Madison admitted, were less 
guarded than were those of Virginia. He defended them 
incidentally, however, and insisted that the term "nullifi- 
cation" as used in them was meant to apply "to extreme 
cases as alone justifying a resort to any forcible relief." 
When the nullification doctrine appeared the Virginia 
Legislature resolved by a vote almost unanimous that the 
Virginia resolutions of 1798 did not support it, and 
Madison wrote to Edward Livingston: "The doctrine 
of nullification [is] as new to me as it was to you." The 
conclusion is inevitable that those public men who were 
personally concerned in the movement of 1798 and who 
saw the South Carolina doctrine appear in 1828 did not 
believe that the former furnished a fair foundation upon 
which to build the latter. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, 
Jefferson's grandson, wrote to Madison in 1833 to say 
that people were trying to connect Jeiferson with the new 
creed. Randolph had indignantly denied the justice of 
this and asked J\Iadison to corroborate him, which Madi- 
son promptly did.* Thomas H. Benton was in the Sen- 
ate when Calhounism was first preached in that body. 
As a firm Democrat, having Jefferson for his patron 
saint and presumably familiar with Jefferson's tenets, he 
declared that, although the nullification party had taken 
its name from a word used in the Kentucky resolutions, 
and used these resolutions to support its arguments, the 
creed had really originated after the enactment of the 
tariff of 1828 and was not held by Jefferson.f In 1829, 
when Hayne of South CaroHna, to support this position,' 
quoted the Virginia resolutions, Daniel Webster denied 

* New York Public Library (Lenox) MSS. 
t Benton's " Thirty Years' View," I, 138. 



264 LIFE OF JAI^IES MADISON 

that they furnished him an argument, and said they were 
merely an assertion of a right to dissent from Government 
measures and of the right of revokition.* Albert Gallatin 
was an old man and no longer in public life when the 
Nullification Party formed. Thirty years before he had 
defended Edward Livingston from censure for an in- 
flammatory speech against the Alien and Sedition laws 
by saying he concurred in thinking the people had a right 
to resist unconstitutional laws, although an appeal should 
first be made to the judiciary. He now pronounced 
South Carolina's position to be "outrageous and un- 
justifiable, "t Apparently, also, "nullification" was 
hitherto unheard of by him. 

Edward Livingston, as Secretary of State under An- 
drew Jackson, wrote the great proclamation against the 
nullifiers. His authorship is proved, not by the fact 
that a draft of the proclamation in his hand was left 
by him among his papers, J for such a draft might 
have been made by him from Jackson's notes, but by the 
identity of the constitutional arguments in the proclama- 
tion with those employed by Livingston, first in his 
speeches in Congress in 1796, and afterward upon his re- 
turn to public life in 1824. In the interval his views had 
become less radical, and he said he no longer feared as he 
had formerly the assumption of undelegated power by 
the general government, but that his republican senti- 
ments had undergone no change. In 1796, in opposing 
the enactment of the Alien and Sedition laws, he said: 
" My opinions. Sir, on this [the constitutional] subject 
are explicit and I wish they may be known: they are 
that whenever our laws manifestly infringe the Con- 
stitution under which they are made, the people ought 
not to hesitate which they should obey. Thus, Sir, one 
of the first effects of measures such as this, if they be not 

* Id, I, 140. 

t Adams's "Gallatin," 648. 

$ The papers are in the possession of his kinsman, Carleton Hunt, 
LL. D., at Livingston's country seat, Montgomery on the Hudson. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 265 

acquiesced in, will be disaffection among the people to 
your Government — tumults, violations and recurrence to 
first revolutionary principles." Again, in another speech 
he said: "Nor could he see how acts made contrary to 
the Constitution could be binding upon the people; un- 
less gentlemen said Congress may act in contravention 
to the Constitution," and in replying to a question by 
Otis of Massachusetts he said the judges of an infraction 
of the Constitution were to be the people of the United 
States. The proclamation of 1832 said : "The ordinance 
[of nullification] is founded, not on the indefeasible right 
of resisting acts which are plainly unconstitutional and 
too oppressive to be endured." . . . There are two 
appeals to an unconstitutional act passed by Congress 
— one to the judiciary and the other to the people of the 
States." He paraphrased in the proclamation part of a 
speech on international improvements made by him in 
1824: "The State Governments, although they did not 
finally adopt, yet gave it [the Constitution] their previous 
assent, without which it would not have been submitted 
to the people." Another sentence of the proclamation 
must be quoted: "The discover}^ of this important 
feature [the right of nullification] in our Constitution was 
reserved for the present day. To the statesmen of South 
Carolina belongs the invention, and upon the citizens of 
that State will unfortunately fall the evils of reducing it 
to practice." There is really nothing in the Virginia reso- 
lutions that could not have been written by the same 
hand which wrote the proclamation. 

Madison said that Livingston's speech on "The Foot 
Resolutions" delivered in the Senate, March 13, 1830, 
shortly before he became Secretary of State, expressed 
his views. Livingston said: "It was an attribute of the 
sovereignty of the States to watch over the operations 
of the General Government and protect its citizens from 
unconstitutional measures. An act in the opinion of a 
State palpably unconstitutional, but affirmed by the 
Supreme Court, could be met — 



266 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

"By remonstrating against it to Congress. 

"By an address to the People in their elective functions 
to change or instruct their representatives ; 

''By a similar address to the other States, in which they 
will have a right to declare that they consider the act as un- 
constitutional and therefore void; 

"By proposing amendments to the Constitution in the 
manner pointed out by that instrument ; 

"And, finally, if the act be tolerably oppressive, and 
they find the General Government persevere in enforcing 
it, by a resort to the natural right which every people 
have to resist extreme oppression." 

Nuhification by a single State was, he said, not implied 
by any right of sovereignty "not warranted by practice 
or contemporaneous exposition, nor imphed by the true 
construction of the Virginia resolutions of 1898."* 

Madison wrote to Henry Clay to say he fully approved 
of Clay's speech at Cincinnati, August 3, 1832, in which 
Clay said the doctrine of nuhification was as new as it 
would be alarming, if it were sustained by numbers in 
proportion to the zeal and fervid eloquence of its friends. 
"I cah it a novel doctrine. I am not unaware that at- 
tempts have been made to support it on the authority of 
certain acts of my native and adopted States [Virginia 
and Kentucky]. ... At the epoch of 1798-9, I had 
just attained my majority, and although I was too young 
to share in the public councils of my country, I was ac- 
quainted with many of the actors of that memorable 
period; I knew their views, and formed and freely ex- 
pressed my own opinions on passing events. The then 
administration of the General Government was believed 
to entertain views . . . hostile to the existence of the 
liberties of this country. The AHen and Sedition laws, 
particularly, and other measures, were thought to be the 
consequences and proofs of these views. If the adminis- 
tration had such a purpose, it was feared that the extreme 
case, justifying forcible resistance, might arise, but no one 

♦Hunt's "Life of Edward Livingston," 345. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 267 

believed that, in point of fact, it had arrived. No one 
contended that a single State possessed the power to 
annul the deliberate acts of the whole. . . . The doc- 
trines of that day, and they are as true at this, were, that 
the Federal Government is a limited government; that 
it has no powers but the granted powers. Virginia con- 
tended that in case of a palpable, deliberate and danger- 
ous exercise of other powers not granted by said compact, 
the States, who are parties thereto, have the right to inter- 
pose for arresting the evil, and for maintaining, within 
their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liber- 
ties appertaining to them. Kentucky declared that the 
'several States that framed that instrument, the Federal 
Constitution, being sovereign and independent, have the 
unquestionable right to judge of its infractions, and a 
nullification by those sovereigns of all unauthorized acts, 
done under colour of that instrument, is the rightful 
remedy.' . . . The power of a single State to annul 
an act of the whole has been reserved for the discovery 
of some politicians in South Carolina."* 

But the politicians of South Carolina had in reality been 
discussing for some years academically the question of 
whether this right existed, and some of them thought 
Virginia had said it existed. The State was Federalist 
in 1798, and even approved the Alien and Sedition laws, 
and it continued to have a large body of Federalist or Whig 
voters for many years afterwards. In 182 1 the publica- 
tion of Yates's "Minutes of Debates in the Constitutional 
Convention" drew forth this comment from The Southern 
Patriot and Commercial Advertiser, one of the chief news- 
papers of Charleston : "Let us be assured of the ground 
on which we stand; and whether any member of the 
States constituting less than a majority of the people of 
the Union have a right to declare the Constitution vio- 
lated whenever they may conceive their rights infringed. 
. . . Let the people resume the power granted when- 
ever it be abused, but let no single State assume the ex- 

* Works of Henry Clay, V, 401. 



268 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

travagant pretension of judging of such abuse under the 
plea of defending the sovereignty of the States. . . . 
A single State, therefore, or any number, comprising less 
than a majority of the people of the United States, can 
have no right in good faith to release themselves from the 
compact by which the whole are bound to submit in cer- 
tain cases to the decisions of that tribunal [the Supreme 
Court]. 

"If a majority of the people of the Union conceive this 
Court tyrannical, let them say so. . . . But until 
this manifestation of popular feeling takes place, we hold 
it to be the duty of the minority, whether consisting of 
one or more States, to submit in silence, because there can 
be no case of flagrant tyranny or wrong."* 

John C. Calhoun was then the very man who did not 
follow a narrow constitutional construction. "He has," 
said a newspaper defender in 1822, "invariably depre- 
cated refined [constitutional] subleties and far-fetched 
constructions, contending that as the Constitution was 
intended for the people, it ought to be construed by the 
plain and obvious maxims of common sense. It is to 
politicians of a different character that we are indebted 
for those technical and lawyer-like refinements which will 
carry the Constitution in either direction to any extent, 
even to the confines of anarchy and rebehion." This 
writer drew a contrast between the views of the public 
men of South Carolina and Virginia. "The former look 
upon the General Government as the guardian of the 
rights of the whole Union, and maintain that whatever 
powers it has under the Constitution are essentially su- 
preme, and that the State Governments cannot interfere 
with the exercise of those powers ; the latter conceive that 
the General Government can exercise no power that they 
may please to think a violation of the sovereignty of the 
States. The former believe that when all the departments 
of the General Government have affirmed the constitu- 

* Files of South Carolina newspapers in the Charleston Library 
Society, Charleston, S. C. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 269 

tionality of an act of Congress, no State has a right to 
oppose it by penal laws any more than certain other 
States had a right to oppose, positively or negatively, the 
late war with Great Britain — whereas, the latter contend 
that a State, being sovereign, has a right to decide for 
herself whether the General Government has exceeded its 
power or not, and to refuse to yield obedience to its laws 
accordingly." 

It was the threat of the tariff of 1828 that changed the 
tone of public opinion in the State. During the summer 
of 1827 the people of the various districts held meetings 
and resolved that a tariff having in view the encourage- 
ment of domestic manufactures was contrary to their free 
and chartered rights. "Our national pact is broken," 
they cried, and a large and growing sentiment in favour 
of the separation of South Carolina from the Union was 
manifested. The Union party of the State sounded the 
warning that the project of disunion was not the fantasy 
that Northern optimists believed it to be. On July 4, at a 
public dinner of the American Revolutionary Society, one 
of the toasts was : " The Union of the States — to be pre- 
served only by mutual concession, not by unequal taxa- 
tion." A public meeting in the Colleton District of 
South Carolina resolved: "That the adhesion of the 
State of South Carolina to the Union should depend upon 
the unconditional repeal by the present or next Congress 
of the tariff laws of 1816, 1824 and 1828, so far as they 
conflict with the constitutional rights of our citizens." 
"We may charge New England," said the City Gazette of 
Charleston, the organ of the Union party, "with having 
produced the Hartford Convention, an assemblage of 
traitors to their country ! But if we look at home we 
may find kindred spirits to the Hartford Conventionists, 
who have been and are now both secretly sowing the 
seeds of disunion throughout the State, and who are only 
waiting a favourable opportunity to sap the foundation 
of the Constitution and apply the torch of the incendiary 
to the sacred temple of our liberties." 



270 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 



The two parties in the State wete the Union party and 
the NulHfiers, and the former, which until 1832 was proba- 
bly numerically the stronger, regarded the latter as 
composed simply of disunionists. "But this everlasting 
cant," said the Camden, S. C, Gazette, " of devotion to the 
Union, accompanied by a recommendation to do those 
acts that must necessarily destroy it, is beyond patient 
endurance from a people not absolutely confined in their 
own madhouses." Many of the so-called NulHfiers, in- 
cluding some of the leaders of the party, were careless 
about their complicated creed and preferred the simplicity 
of rebellion*. Harriet Martineau, who visited Charleston 
when the excitement was at its height, said: " If not a 
single import duty had ever been imposed there would 
still have been the contrasts which they cannot endure to 
perceive between the thriving States of the North and 
their own. Now, when they see the flourishing villages 
of New England, they cry 'we pay for all this.'"t The 
contemporaneous literature of South Carolina at this 
time teems with this idea. Why was the State so poor ? 
Why were so many of the people in debt? Why was 
there no emigration to the State ? A tariff law unequal 
in its benefits was a fact visible to them in their suffering, 
and they set their teeth in it and worried it, as a dog does 
a stick which by itself cannot harm him. They would do 
away with it peaceably or forcibly, with or without sepa- 
ration from the Union, and the Kentucky and Virginia 
resolutions they took as a basis upon which to construct 
a constitutional argument, but there would have been the 
same resistance to the law, and in effect the same rebellion, 
if the resolutions had never been written and if Calhoun 
had never wrought from them his wonderful doctrine. 

* This fact was vouched for to the author in Charleston some years 
ago by a distinguished survivor of the Nullification period, United 
States Judge George S. Bryan, whose source of information was per- 
sonal knowledge. 

•j- Society in America. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

If Jefferson was strong with the people when he came 
so near being elected President in 1 796, he was stronger in 

1800, when four years of Federal rule had filled them with 
disgust and fear. 

That the Republicans should be successful in obtaining 
the Government was Madison's ardent wish. He did 
not, therefore, object to trials under the Sedition law, for 
he knew that its vigourous enforcement would strengthen 
his party. Prudence on the part of the Republicans 
cooperating with the recklessness of the Federalists would 
drive the latter from power. When it became evident 
that the selection of the President would devolve upon 
the House of Representatives he was alarmed lest 
Burr might be smuggled in, but he did not believe 
that Adams would lend himself to so contemptible 
a scheme. The possibility of the House making no 
choice, thus involving an interregnum in the office 
of President, was seriously considered, and he concluded 
that if it occurred the best course would be for the 
two candidates having a majority of the votes to call 
Congress together by joint proclamation. While the 
election was still pending Jefferson urged him to come 
to Washington, but he thought it would be impolitic to 
appear on the scene until the question of the Presidency 
was settled; and furthermore his father died February 27, 

1 80 1, and he was detained at home by private affairs. 
He had agreed before the election to accept the chief post 
in Jeft'erson's cabinet, and when it became known that 
Jeft'erson had been elected it was known at the same time 
who was to be the Secretary of State. 

271 



2 72 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

The two men were in striking contrast in many par- 
ticulars. Jefferson was six feet two inches tall, sunny- 
faced, loose-jointed, and careless in his apparel. He was a 
talkative man and a man of speculative philosophy, and 
he often pursued an idea to conclusions which were 
apparently logical enough and yet plainly in violation of 
common sense and the experience of mankind. This 
characteristic opened to criticism and ridicule many of 
the things he said and wrote, but whatever he did was 
more carefully weighed. Being the most conspicuous 
man in America, all that he said was repeated. Madison, 
when he was present, used to adroitly moderate the ex- 
treme views he advanced, and after his death made the 
plea that ahowance ought to be made for his unthinking 
verbal indiscretions ; but his enemies found in them good 
weapons to use against him. He was at the same time a 
great political philosopher and the greatest party leader 
our country has ever produced. He gave form and sub- 
stance to a political philosophy which is imperishable, 
and his party still appeals to his name whenever it makes 
a new declaration of principles. Among the men of his 
time no one had as large a following as he. The masses 
of the people looked upon him as the great apostle of the 
equal rights of man, and the educated class saw in him a 
scholar and a man of refined breeding. As he was be- 
loved, so was he hated, intensely, and against no other 
of our public men has there survived so extensive a litera- 
ture of hatred. His enemies accused him of a hundred 
crimes. Because he fled when Tarleton captured Char- 
lottesviUe during the Revolution, instead of remaining to 
be captured or killed, he was called a coward. Because 
he was latitudinarian in his rehgious views, he was de- 
nounced as an atheist, and the clergy of New England 
shook the figure of anti-Christ at their congregations and 
told them it was Thomas Jefferson. He was looked upon 
as a man of grossly impure private life, but the charge 
was a common one against Southern planters and was 
false. He was beUeved to have paid or suborned the 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 073 

most scurrilous scandal-breeders of the Republican press, 
and the charge had a basis of truth, the fact being that he 
encouraged them when he found them useful. 

So strong was the light in which he stood that Madison 
was ahnost hidden in the shadow, for Madison had done 
nothing to startle the world and made no effort to obtrude 
himself upon its notice. Yet strangers were impressed 
favourably by Madison's simple, courteous manners and 
his dignified modesty, and they all admitted the charm 
of his conversation. Sir Augustus Foster, the British 
IVIinister, reported to his Government that he was a better 
informed man than Jefferson, "and moreover a social, 
jovial and good-humoured companion, full of anecdote! 
sometimes rather of a loose description, but oftener of a 
political and historical interest."* A sense of humour 
was not prominent in Jefferson, and if in Madison it 
sometimes took a broader tone than propriety now per- 
mits, it must be remembered that the jests of his day 
were not overdelicate ; and the tradition is good that 
Washington himself was not averse to hearing and even 
making jokes which Smollett or Fielding might have 
chronicled. Madison was a more careful talker than 
Jefferson and less speculative in thought, and he wrote 
with rare purity and directness. This has been attributed 
by his biographer, Mr. Rives, to the fact of his having been 
a student of Addison, but a more reasonable explanation 
IS that his style reflected his nature, which was not unlike 
Addison's in its purity, unaffectedness and scholarly and 
humourous bent. He never, however, wrote other than 
seriously, and nearly all his letters are narratives of events. 
Jefferson could not make a speech, and Aladison was one 
of the best speakers of his time. His views of public 
policy were carefully formed and he had the constructive 
ability which Jefferson lacked. The qualities of leader- 
ship of Jefferson united with the more practical wisdom 
of Madison in forming a remarkable combination of 
talent at the head of the new administration. 

* Henry Adams's "History of the United States," I, iqo. 



2 74 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

Into the ragged, unbuilt town, whose location on the 
banks of the Potomac his exertions had made possible, 
came Madison and his wife in the spring of 1801. That 
it was to be their place of residence for sixteen eventful 
years was a possibility which his mind may have enter- 
tained, for the people were better satisfied with the new 
Government than they had been with the old, and one 
reason for their satisfaction was that Madison, in whom 
all Republicans and many Federalists had confidence, 
was the Secretary of State. His party, if it managed 
its conduct skilfully, might retain power for a long time, 
and the mantle of his chief would naturally fall upon his 
shoulders. 

The position accorded Madison in the official and social 
world of the little capital was second only to the Presi- 
dent's. The President being a widower, the White House 
was presided over only occasionally by one of his daugh- 
ters, so ]\Irs. Madison took her place at the head of Wash- 
ington society. It was a small circle, composed of Gov- 
ernment officials, a half-dozen diplomats and a few George- 
town and country families. An unwritten but generally 
observed law restricted it to people of polite breeding. 
Although the party of the common people was in power, 
the leaders were, generally speaking, gentlemen who 
selected their associates in private life carefully. 

The scale of living of the Secretary of State was a lavish 
one. When he first came to Washington he took a small 
house, which in the course of a year he gave up for a more 
commodious one next door to his friend. Dr. William 
Thornton. It stood on the north side of Bridge Street 
(now M Street), west of High Street (now 3 2d Street), 
in Georgetown,* and belonged to one Nicholas Voss. He 
paid at first $600 a year rental, which was afterwards 
reduced to $500, and this was nearly twice as much as 
similar accommodations would have cost in Philadelphia. 
The house was modest enough, but Madison now branched 

* The author is indebted to Hugh T. Taggart, Esq., of Washington, 
for this identification. 



LIFE OF JiVMES MADISON 275 

out into many extravagances, making considerable per- 
chases of fine porcelain, plate and glass, and importing 
large quantities of fine wines. Hermitage, White Virgin, 
White Cotillon, etc., besides olives, olive oil, preserved 
fruits and other delicacies. In 1802 he bought a fine 
coach, second-hand, made in Philadelphia, paying for it 
$510, and an expensive silver-plated harness. He 
indulged his taste for good horses, and in partnership 
with Thorton owned a race horse, although it does not 
appear that they put him on the track. He lived like a 
rich man, but his payments were not always made 
promptly. Mr. Voss had occasionally to remind him 
that his rent was overdue, and sometimes a creditor 
politely dunned him, but a number of his friends owed 
money to him, and he was never charged with avoiding 
his pecuniary obligations. He had, in fact, a considerable 
amount of property. He owned a house in Philadelphia 
which he rented to Stephen Moylan for $200 a year,* and 
by his father's will had absolute control of the Montpelier 
tract of 1,800 acres of productive land, and a farm on the 
Rapidan River in Culpepper County of 475 acres. t He 
had half ownership in a farm of 2 19 acres in Louisa County, 
and the whole of the farm adjoining Montpelier, which 
his father had given him many years before, besides an 
interest in enormous tracts of wild Ohio and Kentucky 
lands, which his father had patented. He owned, partly 
by purchase of his own and partly by inheritance, a 
number of negroes. He had acquired several lots in 
Washington and some stock in a few enterprises. His 
salary as Secretary of State was $5,000 a year, and of 
ready money he had not much in addition, for his 
farms absorbed the income they yielded. But in spite 
of the fact that he was often embarrassed in paying 
for his open-handed hospitality, the social side of the 
life in Washington must have been pleasant, and his wife 
made it eminently successful by attaining a general 

* Department of State MSS. 

t Orange County, Va., MSS. records. 



2 76 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

popularity, which she made contributory to her husband's 
success. 

The poHtical side of Washington hfe presented, es- 
peciaUy in the beginning, a vexatious aspect, which must 
have sorely taxed the patience of a man unaccustomed as 
Madison was to deal with what is known as practical 
politics. The Republican party was composed of two 
schools — the radicals, who desired to keep the ranks of 
the party unbroken by dividing among them the spoils of 
office and driving the Federalists out, and the moderates, 
who wished to pursue a conciliatory course toward the 
Federalists in order to attract to themselves the milder 
Federalists. The Federalists had been in control of the 
executive branch of the Government during the greater 
part of the eight years of Washington's administration 
and during the whole of Adams's four years, and it natu- 
rally fell about, in the absence of any compulsory rule to 
prevent it, that the Federalist upper officials had generally 
surrounded themselves with Federalist under officials, 
and there were few Republicans in appointive offices. 
Jefferson's intention when he entered upon the Presidency 
was to fill vacancies as they occurred with Republicans 
and thus gradually secure to his party an even repre- 
sentation, but a clamour arose among the Republicans 
for quicker methods and he yielded to it. The pressure 
did not differ in character from that which greets a new 
President at the present day, and was met in the same 
accommodating spirit. As second in the administration 
and nearest friend to the President, Madison received 
many applications for office, but he did not receive as 
many as Gallatin, and he did not participate in the dis- 
tribution of patronage, which was accomplished by the 
President himself with the aid of politicians having 
knowledge of local political conditions. What the radical 
Republicans expected was made plain to Madison. Just 
before he came to Washington, William Irvine, of Car- 
lisle, Pennsylvania, wrote to him : 

"Many of us, you and I amongst the first, have been 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 277 

some years past vilely traduced, as men who were using 
every effort (insidiously, too) to destroy the Government. 
. . . They all now, at the present moment, affect 
great moderation, speak of conciliation as very desirable, 
extoll the President's speech, etc., etc. But mark the 
end. They expect and wish conciliation all on one side. 
So soon as they find that they and friends are to be dis- 
missed from office, they will bounce and kick. . . . 
On general principles I am persuaded it will be highly in- 
jurious to the Republican interest if the changes are not 
pretty general. ... If they are not turned out, in 
due time, it must and will discourage hereafter the ex- 
ertions of the Republicans." 

The views of the moderate wing of the party are shown 
in a letter from Ralph Bowie, York, Pennsylvania, 
March 24, 1807. He said the President's inaugural 
address had not only been received with general approba- 
tion by Republicans, but that Federalists were disposed 
to welcome it cordially, too. The destruction of party 
spirit now lay in the President's power to his everlasting 
fame, but it could not be accomplished if there was a 
general removal of Federalists from office. 

Noah Webster was a fair example of the moderate 
Federalists who might have been attracted to the Repub- 
licans if Federalists were not removed from office. From 
New Haven, July 18, 1801, he wrote to Madison, that 
although he had been a supporter of Adams, he had de- 
termined when Jeft'erson came into the Presidency that 
he would sustain him, and had so instructed the three 
newspapers he owned. Nothing of a light nature could 
have changed his intention. "But- the late removals 
from office in this & some other States have surprised & 
confounded us. We all expected that the chief magis- 
trate would gratify a number of his friends, & especially 
place about himself men in whom he has particular con- 
fidence, & be assured. Sir, that not a complaint was 
uttered, until the appointment of foreigners to the highest 
offices. But when we found that the principle was 



2 78 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

adopted of making vacancies, especially when it was seen 
that the most meritorious officers were dismissed to make 
room for characters less meritorious as men & as citizens, 
& some of them ignorant, unprincipled & even contempti- 
ble: what do you imagine must have been our sen- 
sations !"* 

The specific allusions were to the appointment of Galla- 
tin, who was of Swiss nativity, as Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, and the removal of EHzur Goodrich, a man of high 
standing, as Collector of the Port of New Haven, to make 
way for Samuel Bishop, an old and inefficient man. 

It fell to Madison to deal with the importunities of 
Callender, who conceived that he had claims upon the 
administration, not only for services performed for the 
Repubhcans, but for sufferings in the Republican cause. 
In the Spring of 1800 he had been sentenced to nine 
months' imprisonment and to pay a fine of $200 for his 
libel against John Adams. The prosecution being under 
a law which Jeft'erson considered to be unconstitutional, 
he was pardoned immediately upon Jefferson's becoming 
President. "I discharged," he explained in a letter to 
Mrs. Adams (July 22, 1804), "every person under punish- 
ment or prosecution under the Sedition law, because I 
considered, and now consider, that law to be a nullity as 
absolute and as palpable as if Congress had ordered us to 
fall down and worship a golden image." A part of the 
remission of punishment in this case included the return 
to Callender of the fine he had paid. Madison's acquaint- 
ance with Callender was contemporaneous with Jefferson's 
and began when Callender first came into prominence as a 
political writer, and when his productions were generally 
regarded with favour by the Republicans. Although 
Madison never held him in esteem nor pretended to do so, 
Callender had for Madison greater respect and confidence 
than he entertained for other pubhc men who disguised 
their contempt for him. In 1796 (May 28) he wrote to 
Madison from Baltimore, saying he wanted to estabhsh 

* Dept. of State MSS. Applications for Office. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 279 

himself as a country schoolmaster. He envied the wages 
of a journeyman carpenter, he added, and had a wife and 
four children to support. He expressed a fear that Madi- 
son did not have a friendly feeling toward him.* It was 
about this time that Jefferson first reheved his distress 
by a pecuniar)'" contribution, which with several subse- 
quent donations from the same source Callender after- 
ward represented to be a reward for his writings and pur- 
chase of his pen. ]\Iadison, however, neither found him 
employment nor sent him alms. 

Four years after this incident Jefferson was President- 
elect, and Callender, who was nearing the end of his term 
of imprisonment, received from him assurances, or what 
he took to be assurances, that he would be pardoned and 
reimbursed the amount of his fine. When he was released 
he was in great pecuniary distress and became angry be- 
cause there was delay in paying back his fine. He began 
to threaten at once, and wrote to Madison as "the one 
man in whom he reposed perfect confidence," to urge 
haste. "Does the President," he said, "reflect"upon the 
premnnire into which he may bring himself by the breach 
of an unqualified or even a volunteer promise ? ... I 
will not injure him by supposing that he cares a farthing 
for anything which I feel." Jefferson, he went on, should 
reflect that his services might be needed again, and he 
gave warning that he would not be sacrificed as a "scape- 
goat to political decorum." He admired Jefferson, he 
said, but had been stung to the quick because Jefferson 
had snubbed him. He confided this fact to Madison 
alone, and added that it was for Jefferson to say 
whether it would be safe to quarrel with him.f 

The only thing that made Callender a man of impor- 
tance was the fact that he had fallen a victim to the ini- 
quitous Sedition law. He embodied the principle of 
opposition to that law, and the most distinguished law>^ers 
in \''irginia had defended him at his trial. It was easy, 

* Dept. of State MSS. 
t Dept. of State MSS. 



2 8o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

therefore, for him to form an exaggerated notion of his 
personal importance, and the ill-advised attention paid 
to him by Jefferson's friends encouraged his belief. 
Monroe especially was overzealous, and seemed to fear 
the consequences to Jefferson if the man were cast off. 
He saw Callender soon after his threats to Madison, and 
Callender complained that no positive orders had been 
given to pay him the amount of his fine. Monroe wrote 
Madison that Callender wanted twenty-five dollars to 
enable him to go to Washington, but Monroe persuaded 
him to wait a few days, and in the meantime asked the 
United States Marshal whether the money to reimburse 
his fine could not be got from the State Department. 
Being answered in the negative, Monroe thought of raising 
the money by private subscription, but concluded that 
if he did Callender would use the fact to the discredit of 
the Executive. Monroe said there was nothing to do but 
order the money paid or positively decline to do so. If 
the latter course were finally determined upon, then 
"some person friendly to the Republican interests, sensi- 
ble of Callender' s service & misfortunes, might advance 
him the money and take his order on the Govt, for it 
when received. The amt. might be raised by subscrip- 
tion, tho' not easily here, and possibly if Callender knew 
nothing of the motive he might be quiet, especially if ^ he 
believed the fine if reimbursed wod. never come to him. 

. . Be assured that the President & yrself cannot be 
too circumspect in case he comes to Georgetown in yr 
conversations with him, for I think nothing more doubt- 
ful than his future political course. If from charitable 
motives either of you advance him money, it merits yr 
consideration whether he ought to know from whom it 
came . . . if he is not [an honest man] every act of 
that kind will be attributed to improper motives,^ and 
perverted hereafter to the injury of the benefactor."* 

Callender came to Washington in June and confided 
everything to Madison. He would be placated only by 

* New York Public Library (Lenox) MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 281 

an office, and wanted to be postmaster at Richmond. 
The mother of his four children was dead, and he had 
fallen in love with a Richmond lady who was in a sphere 
above him. "He has flattered himself," Madison wrote 
to Monroe, "and probably has been flattered by others, 
into a persuasion that the emoluments and reputation of a 
post-office would obtain her in marriage." Madison met 
the man in no spirit of temporizing, and says he talked 
to him plainly. An arrangement was made with the 
Treasury Department to pay the fine, but he was sent 
back to Richmond without hope of obtaining anything 
more.* He at once put his threats into execution, formed 
a connection with TJie Richmond Recorder, and through its 
columns poured forth a flood of vituperation and abuse 
against Jefferson and the Republicans; and it is a fact 
discreditable to the Federalists that they hailed the 
slanders of the disappointed blackmailer with encourage- 
ment. In his mad career he appears to have spared 
Madison from any bespattering, although Madison was 
the agent chosen to withdraw from him all hope of attain- 
ing his ambition. 

Callender was not the only Republican writer who 
thought himself entitled to recognition. William Duane, 
of The Aurora, had certainly done a great deal toward 
the election of Jefferson, and although the removal of the 
capital to Washington had deprived his paper of much 
of its prestige, Jefferson's administration owed more to 
Duane than it did to any other editor. He, too, had been 
tried under the Sedition law, but had escaped punish- 
ment. His party being now in power, he conceived that 
he was entitled to profit from the victory he had helped 
to \\m. As soon as Madison took charge of the State 
Dej)artment, Duane wrote to him (May 10, 1801) that 
while The Aurora had the largest circulation of any paper 
in the United States, he was hampered in securing adver- 
tisements by the hostility of the Custom House, and could 
not make a living. He had, therefore, determined to add 

* Madison's Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 173. 



282 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

to his business a book and stationery shop, and would Hke 
to supply books to the new Library of Congress and 
stationery to the State Department. He also suggested 
that the Acts passed by Congress, which the Secretary of 
State then paid the chief newspapers throughout the 
country to print, should be given only to Republican 
papers, in order that their emoluments and circulation 
might thereby be increased. Later, August 3, 1803, he 
complained that he often needed official information to 
enable him to refute charges against the administration 
made by the Federalist press, and thought it would be 
well if such information could be furnished to him and 
other Republican editors.* But Duane's theory of 
party Government was not Madison's and his request 
met with no favour. The influence of his paper was on 
the wane, and Madison was more interested in the new 
National Intelligencer, which Samuel Harrison Smith 
launched in Washington when the Jefferson administra- 
tion came in. The unfriendly attitude of Duane toward 
Madison some years later may find a partial explanation 
in his disappointment at finding the State Department 
of so little use to him. 

That Madison did not believe in allowing political con- 
siderations to play a part in the conduct of the business 
of his department was shown by the policy he pursued 
toward his subordinates. Among the letters received by 
Jefferson and ttirned over to Madison was one from 
William P. Gardner, dated November 20, 1807, making 
charges against Richard Wagner, the chief clerk of the 
State Department. Gardner himself had been dismissed 
from the Treasury Department by the Adams ad- 
ministration because he furnished official information 
to Republican newspapers, and Jefferson subsequently 
appointed him a Consul. "Mr. Wagner," Gardner 
wrote, "chief clerk in the office of Mr. Madison, 
has in my hearing frequently ridiculed Republicanism, 
declaring in the language of Mr. Adams that it 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 283 

meant anything or nothing. He has said that he 
never knew a man among the RepubHcans trustworthy, 
of probity or principle. About two years since he 
made a Bet with Mr. Jeremiah Pearsal of this city that 
Mr. Gallatin in the course of one year from that date would 
either be hung or sent out of the country, observing at the 
same time that he considered himself perfectly justified 
in making the Bet from the well-known infamy of Mr. 
Gallatin's character."* 

Nevertheless, Madison retained Wagner as chief clerk 
for five years, when he voluntarily left the Department, 
and John Graham, who had been Secretary of Legation 
and charge d'affaires at ]\Iadrid from 1801 to 1804, and 
who enjoyed Madison's friendship, was appointed in his 
place. As there were no assistant secretaries the chief 
clerk was the second man in the Department and was in 
charge of it whenever the Secretary was absent from 
Washington, 

Only one personal appointment was made by ]\Iadison 
when he became Secretary of State, and this involved no 
disturbance of the existing force. The issuance of patents 
for inventions was until 1849 a part of the functions of the 
State Department, and to superintend this branch of the 
business Madison appointed his friend and neighbour, 
William Thornton, the first designer of the Capitol, a man 
of scientific education and of uncommon accomplishments. 
Thornton's salary was only $1,400 a year, but this was 
a little more than the annual fees from patents then 
amounted to. 

When Madison took charge of the State Department on 
May 2, 1 80 1, he found it in a condition of suspended ani- 
mation. Adams had dismissed Timothy Pickering a year 
before, and John Marshall had filled an interregnum for 
ten months, when Levi Lincoln, the Attorney-General, 
took his place temporarily for two months. Except for 
his services from 1 7 78 to 1 780 as a member of the council of 

*" Office-Seeking During Jefferson's Administration" (Hunt). 
American Historical Review, January, 1898. 



284 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

the Governor of Virginia, Madison had never held an ex- 
ecutive office before, but the business part of the State 
Department was not then extensive nor difficult to 
manage. The whole executive force consisted of nine 
men, one of whom was a messenger. The chief clerk 
received $1,500 a year and the under clerks from $500 to 
$900 each.* 

The real task before the Secretary was, of course, the 
management of the foreign affairs of the country. 

* "The Department of State: History and Functions" (Hunt). 



CHAPTER XXIX 

LOUISIANA 

The foreign relations of the United States involved 
important questions with three powers — Great Britain, 
France and Spain. With the two former there was the 
contention against their colonial system and consequent 
complaints and claims, and Spain held Louisiana and the 
mouth of the Mississippi River, and the trade of the whole 
Western country was at her mercy. The tone adopted 
by the administration toward England was, at first, the 
reverse of conciliatory. Rufus King, although a Federal- 
ist, was continued as minister, and full confidence was 
placed in him. On July 24, 1801, Madison instructed 
him that the two chief grievances which he was to endeav- 
our to have redressed were "the spoliations of our trade, 
and the impressment of our seamen." The property, 
Madison said, unlawfully seized by Great Britain amounted 
to some millions of dollars. "The imperfect lists of im- 
pressed seamen which have been obtained by our agents 
and reported to this Department swell the number to near 
two thousand, more than four-fifths of whom are natives 
of the United States, not more than seventy are British 
subjects, and more than seventy aHens to both Great 
Britain and the United States, and consequently so dis- 
tinguishable by their language and other signs as to take 
away all colour of apology for the outrage." Of those 
unjustly impressed, he said, only about a third had been 
set at liberty. " But it is proper to be known," he added, 
"that the wrongs have made a deep impression on the 
American mind, and that if no satisfactory change of 
conduct be soon apparent . . . the policy of this 
country can scarcely fail to take some shape more reme- 

285 



286 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

dial than that hitherto given to it." King was to press 
for an adjustment of British duties to a real equality with 
those of the United States and to lay stress upon the 
ability of the United States to retaliate. In an instruc- 
tion of December 22, 1801, Madison said: "Were the 
Constitution not a barrier to duties on exports, it would 
not be very difficult for Congress to provide a remedy of 
themselves, by repealing the present discrimination on 
imports, and imposing on our exports in British bottoms 
precisely the same duty, which her countervailing clause 
adds on the importation of them in American bottoms, 
into Great Britain."* 

The policy was thus a simple one — he would employ 
against England those "commercial weapons" which he 
had urged the first Congress to use, and which would have 
been more effective if the right to levy export duties had 
been included among them. The complaint against the 
discriminating duties of England was, however, a com- 
plaint against a well-established system, which France 
as well as England followed, and from which all nations 
suffered. England's object was to make all the world 
subservient to her maritime strength, and accordingly 
she required her colonies to trade only with her and use 
only her ships; but the system was relaxed in favour of 
the United States so far as to permit the West Indies to 
keep from starving by importing American foodstuffs 
and send in return molasses and rum. The trading, how- 
ever, was confined in effect to British bottoms. When 
Jefferson's administration began England permitted neu- 
trals to import the products of the French West Indies 
and reship them to France. This carrying trade was 
in American hands, and together with other American 
shipping employed many seamen, a number of whom 
were deserters from British ships who carried papers of 
American citizenship fraudulently obtained. The em- 
barrassment suffered by Great Britain in the loss of her 
seamen she endeavoured to remedy by sending men-of- 

* MSS. Instructions. Dept. of State. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 287 

war to overhaul American ships on the high seas, search 
their crews for deserters, and take them off regardless of 
their citizenship. As Madison showed in his instruc- 
tion to King, many were taken off who were native 
Americans and who were not deserters. But the tone in 
which the outrages of Great Britain were resented soon 
underwent a change in the face of complications with our 
traditional ally of so grave a nature as to force the 
Government to look for effective friendship to our tradi- 
tional enemy. 

As ]\Iinister to France Jefferson appointed Robert R. 
Livingston of New York, one of the leaders of the 
Republican party of that State and head of one of its 
controlling families. He had seen service under the 
Colonial Government and in the Continental Congress, 
and was Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1781 to 1783, 
when he became Chancellor of New York. Jefferson 
offered him a seat in his Cabinet as Secretary of the Navy, 
but he declined. Later he expressed through Madison a 
willingness to serv^e in a diplomatic capacity. He was in 
full sympathy with the peaceful aspirations of the ad- 
ministration, and wrote to Madison, July i, 1 801, to say 
that he thought the President's views of neutral rights 
might be made to mark a new departure in international 
law. "Pedantic compilers" had, he said, put down as 
law what were merely the plundering practices of nations 
at war, and had given little attention to the peaceful 
rights of neutrals. The champion of those rights should 
be America. " If a treaty is proposed," he went on, 
"that is not to be supported by arms, but by commercial 
exclusions, that shall not refer to the present war, and 
that shall be open to all nations that chuse to adopt it, I 
think it cannot fail to meet with sufficient support to es- 
tablish a new law of nations, and that our administration 
will have the glory of saying in the words of the gospel, 
' a new Law I give unto you, that you love one another. ' "* 

Livingston seemed to think it feasible to propose treat- 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



288 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

ies of this kind and wanted a commission to negotiate 
them; but Madison knew that international intercourse 
was not governed by the Goklen Rule, and Livingston 
himself after he got to Paris never thought of supporting 
the propositions he made to Talleyrand and Napoleon 
by quotations from the Scriptures. The attitude of 
Europe toward the United States he described in a letter 
to Madison from Paris, January 15, 1802. "We must 
calculate," he said, "upon every effort from every mari- 
time power in Europe to diminish our commerce." 
France had excluded us from her African colonies; her 
bounties excluded our oil ; her duty on tobacco in foreign 
bottoms compelled its transportation from the United 
States in French ships. Livingston proposed that Con- 
gress levy a duty on French articles imported in foreign 
ships in retaliation.* These questions were of the same 
character as those which distinguished our relations with 
England, but they were less important because our com- 
merce with France was less and there was no inflaming 
question of human rights involved. 

With Spain our relations turned on one great point — • 
the free navigation of the Mississippi. For the sake of a 
shadowy alliance during the Revolution the South would 
have been willing at one time to permit the occlusion of 
the River, and after the Revolution the East narrowly 
missed accomplishing that result in return for unimpor- 
tant commercial privileges. Madison, by opposing first 
his own section and then the East, had prevented action 
when it would have been unfavourable to American in- 
terests, and the occasion had come in a few years when a 
treaty highly satisfactory had peen negotiated. W^ar 
was impending between Spain and England, and to gain 
the friendship of the United States Spain agreed that 
American products should be brought down the Mississippi 
and deposited free of duty at New Orleans, from which 
port they could be transshipped an3rwhere. If the right 
of deposit at New Orleans should ever be changed some 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 289 

other point equally desirable was to be provided. This 
treaty was negotiated in 1795 by Thomas Pinckney of 
South Carolina, on the part of the United States, and the 
Prince of Peace on the part of Spain. It came up for 
action about the same time with the Jay treaty, and the 
unanimous approval it received from Congress and the 
people was in sharp contrast with the condemnations 
showered upon the treaty with Great Britain. When 
Madison became Secretary of State he supposed that 
negotiations with Spain would relate chiefly to the sub- 
ject of this treaty, but secret negotiations were then in 
progress in Europe which soon changed the foreign 
policy of the American Government, and precipitated 
upon it a crisis which no one had thought of as remotely 
possible. 

In August, 1800, it was agreed by Spain to cede Louisi- 
ana to France, its former owner, and a treaty of cession 
followed later. The whole affair was transacted in the 
dark and no inkling of it reached the ears of the American 
Government. September 30, 1800, France and America 
completed a treaty of friendship and commerce, and 
October I France and Spain completed the treaty by 
which Louisiana passed into French hands. The avowed 
purpose for which the negotiations for the retrocession 
were instituted was expressed by Talleyrand: "Let the 
Court of Madrid cede these districts to France, and from 
that moment the power of America is bounded by the 
limits which it may suit the interests and the tranquillity 
of France and Spain, to assign her."* With France in 
possession the Mississippi would be closed — of that there 
could be little doubt. 

But no one in America knew that the cession had been 
made. The rumour got about gradually, and in June, 
1 80 1, Madison instructed Pinckney at Madrid to find out 
if it was true. The reports from Livingston on the sub- 
ject were inconclusive. He arrived in Paris December 3, 
and was able to write to Madison December 10, that while 

* Adams's "History of the United States," I, 356. 



290 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

he was disposed to believe the reported cession had taken 
place, Talleyrand had assured him nothing was settled. 
At this, his first interview with the French Minister, 
Livingston hinted that perhaps "both France and Spain 
might find a mutual interest in ceding the Floridas to the 
United States."* The suggestion, however, met with no 
favourable response. From the very beginning, there- 
fore, it was the policy of the administration to settle the 
question by buying territory controlling the mouth of 
the river, and there were no vexing fears apparently of a 
constitutional question arising to prevent the purchase. 
As it became more certain that the cession to France had 
actually taken place a great fear fell upon the White 
House and State Department lest the cherished hope of 
continued peace should be rudely shattered. 

Livingston was instinicted i\pril 30, 1802, that the re- 
ported cession caused painful apprehensions, and must 
have an instant effect in changing the relations between 
the United States and France. He was to make a friendly 
appeal to the French Government to "revise and abandon 
the project." Mere neighbourhood was dangerous, but 
a possession of the mouth of the Mississippi would be 
fatal to the friendly relations of the countries. May 1 1 , 
1802, Pinckney was ordered to press upon the court of 
Spain "the repugnance of the United States to it" (the 
cession). If it had not taken place Pinckney was to 
make every effort to buy New Orleans and the territory 
east of the Mississippi. If necessary he might offer as an 
inducement a guarantee to Spain of her territory west of 
the Mississippi. The idea of finding a way out of the 
difficulty by purchase had been formulated in the in- 
struction of April 30 to Livingston. He was to find out 
the extent of the cession and whether it included the 
Floridas as well as New Orleans; and to "endeavour to 
ascertain the price at which these, if included in the ces- 
sion, would be yielded to the United States." When the 
cession became a certainty the dread of French occupa- 

* MSS. Instructions and Despatches. Department of State. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 291 

tion became almost frantic. Would France open the 
Mississippi to American trade by selling New Orleans and 
other territory on the east bank of the river, or must 
America league herself with England to obtain these 
necessities ? 

No consolation could be extracted from Livingston's 
reports. The taking possession of the new country was, 
he said, March 24, i;0O2, "a darhng object with the First 
Consul, who sees in' it a means to gratify his friends and 
to dispose of his enemies." The French people regarded 
Louisiana as a paradise, and thought New Orleans would 
command the commerce of the whole Western country. 
Next month (April 24) he reported that the Floridas were 
included in the cession, and that an armament was at that 
moment being fitted out to sail for New Orleans, unless 
Santo Domingo affairs should prevent it. May 28th he 
announced that the personnel of the expedition had been 
determined upon. Bernadotte was to command, Colot 
to be second in command, Adet the Prefect, and the ex- 
pedition to sail in September.* 

In the autumn of 1802 the Spanish Intendant at New 
Orleans suddenly withdrew the right of deposit to 
American commerce. A plain violation of the treaty, it 
was suspected at once that he had received his orders 
from the new master of Louisiana. D' Yrujo, the Spanish 
Minister, repudiated the Intendant's action and prom- 
ised to have it withdrawn, but communication with New 
Orleans was so slow that wlien Madison sent an instruc- 
tion to Pinckney, May 8, 1803, he said the last news from 
New Orleans was of January 20. The withdrawal of the 
right of deposit necessarily closed the river, and unless 
it were open before the Spring trade began a conflict 
seemed unavoidable— begun by the United States to 
compel Spain to open the navigation of the river, or by 
Spain because the Western people would be sure to at- 
tempt the navigation and resort to acts of violence if 
they found it closed. If Madison was right twenty years 

* MSS. Instructions and Despatches. Dept. of State. 



292 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

before in saying American trade down the river could no 
more be stopped than the current of the river itself, 
this was more true now when the trade was so large and 
had been permitted for so long. "This continuation of 
the obstruction to our trade," Madison wrote Pinckney, 
"and the approach of the season for carrying down the 
Mississippi the exports of the Western country, have had 
the natural effect of increasing the Western irritation, 
and embolding the advocates for an immediate redress 
by arms." 

Not only were the Western people ready to fight Spain 
or France, if France was now the master, but the British 
Minister was able to report to his Government that public 
opinion had changed and was friendly to his country. 
So friendly was it, indeed, that an alliance was proposed. 
For the United States the question was whether there 
should be a war with France single-handed or in alliance 
with Great Britain, and on the whole it seemed better 
to form the alliance. Madison accepted it reluctantly. 
He told Monroe confidentially (April 20, 1803) that there 
was grave doubt in his mind whether a temporary aban- 
donment of the right of deposit would not be better than 
a British alliance.* 

To calm the heated temper of the West it was deter- 
mined to appoint Monroe as coadjutor Minister to France 
and Spain. He was popular in the West, and the people 
would believe that under his care no effort would be 
spared to preserve their rights. In Livingston they did 
not have confidence, because he came from a part of the 
country which had voted in Congress to yield up the 
navigation of the Mississippi. From a domestic point 
of view, therefore, Monroe's appointment was a wise one, 
and it was openly avowed to be an alternative or pre- 
cedent to war with France. The crisis, as Madison told 
Pinckney, January 18, 1803, "called for the experiment 
of an Extraordinary mission, carrying with it the weight 
attached to such a measure, as well as the advantage of a 

* Madison's Works (Cong. Ed.), II, 180. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 293 

more thorough knowledge of the views of the Govern- 
ment and the sensibiHty of the public, than can be other- 
wise conveyed." 

The instructions prepared for Livingston and Monroe 
jointly were elaborate and minute. Certain demands 
were to be made; the United States was prepared to go 
great lengths to obtain them; if they could not be got, 
England was to be asked to accept us as allies in a joint 
war, for it was evident that England would soon declare 
war on her own account. "The object in view," said 
Madison, "is to procure by just and satisfactory arrange- 
ments a cession to the United States of New Orleans, 
all of West and East Florida, or as much thereof as the 
actual proprietor can be prevailed on to part with." 
The time was ripe for the success of this object. "The 
instability of the peace of Europe, the attitude taken by 
Great Britain, the languishing state of the French finances, 
and the absolute necessity of either abandoning the 
West India Islands or of sending thither large armaments 
at great expense, all contributed at the present crisis to 
prepare in the French Government a disposition to listen 
to an arrangement which will at once dry up one source 
of foreign controversy and furnish some aid in struggling 
w^ith internal embarrassments." In any arrangements 
which might be made it was to be stipulated that the 
IMississippi be kept free for the navigation of France and 
the United States. In buying the desired territory the 
President was prepared, if necessary, to pay 50,000,000 
livres toiirnois. If France demanded that her remaining 
American territory be guaranteed to her, the demand 
was to be resisted, if possible, but acceded to if found to 
be necessary to obtain the object in view. If France 
would not cede New Orleans and the Floridas, the United 
States would accept less. If France would cede nothing, 
the Envoys were to negotiate for a continuance of the 
right of deposit. If the negotiations failed, an alliance 
with England was to be attempted. 

April 18, 1803, Madison wrote Livingston, a month 



294 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

after Monroe had sailed for France: "If the French 
Government instead of friendly arrangements or views 
should be found to mediate hostilities or to have formed 
projects which will constrain the United States to resort 
to hostilities, such communications are then to be held 
with the British Government as will sound its dispositions 
and invite its concurrence in the war. " The terms of the 
alliance were sketched. The United States could not 
guarantee continued possession of such territory as might 
be conquered during the war, as this would involve us in 
England's future wars ; nor would the United States give 
England the territory west of the ]\Iississippi, as she 
would then have a hold on the river, which would be 
displeasing to the people of the West. To treat for 
the alliance two blank commissions were sent, Monroe's 
name was to be inserted as the Envoy, if the negotiations 
in France did not make it probable that he would be 
persona non grata to England ; otherwise, Livingston was 
to have the commission.* 

The appointment of Monroe was, of course, displeasing 
to Livingston, against whom no dereliction of duty or 
inaptitude in dealing with the French Court could be 
charged. His zeal had, in fact, been extraordinary, and 
he had succeeded in winning the personal good will of 
Napoleon. He endeavoured to convince the French 
that Louisiana would prove a useless possession to them. 
He obtained information by one means or another of the 
progress of the intended expeditions to take possession, 
although all movements in this direction were carefully 
hidden. August 31, 1802, Talleyrand told him France 
intended to take possession before listening to any offers 
to purchase. October 28 he reported that the expedi- 
tion had met with a check. He entered into unofficial 
negotiations with Joseph Bonaparte, who asked him 
whether the United States would prefer the Floridas to 
Louisiana, and Livingston replied that "we had no wish 
to extend our boundary across the Mississippi. . . . 

* MSS. Instructions. Dept. of State. 



LIFE OF JAMES IMADISON 295 

All we sought was security and not extension of territory." 
He bore the suspense and alternate hopes and fears of 
his position with calmness and made no blunders. One 
day Talleyrand would snub him, and the next the First 
Consul would treat him with unusual consideration. At 
one time he confidently expected the armament to sail at 
any moment, then it was so long delayed that he was en- 
couraged to hope it would be abandoned. " Do not ab- 
solutely despair, " he wrote, "tho' you may have no great 
reason to hope." February, 1803, he wrote: "I have 
proposed to them the relinquishment of New Orleans 
and West Florida as far as the River Perdido, together 
with all the Territory lying to the north of the Arcansas 
under an idea that it was necessary to interpose us be- 
tween them and Canada as the only means of preventing 
an attack from that quarter. I did not speak of East 
Florida, because I found they consider the navigation of 
the Gulf as very important. For this I proposed an in- 
definite sum not wishing to mention any till I should re- 
ceive your instruction." March 11, 1803, he reported 
that he had hinted at the project of making the Island of 
New Orleans an independent State under the Government 
of Spain, France and the United States. 

The next day (March 12) he gave an account of Na- 
poleon's audience with the foreign ministers when he 
accosted the British Minister with " I find, ]\Iilord, your 
nation wants war again." This scene carried real hope 
to Livingston, and a month later, April 11, Talleyrand 
asked him whether he wished to have the whole of Louisi- 
ana. "I told him no," Livingston reports; "that our 
wishes extended only to New Orleans and the Floridas. " 
Talleyrand said if they gave New Orleans the rest would 
be of little value, and "he wished to know what w^e would 
give for the whole. " Livingston said he had not thought 
of it, but supposed his Government would not object to 
20,000,000 livres, providing the pending claims were paid. 
Talleyrand said this was not enough.* 

* MSS. Despatches. Dept. of State. 



296 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

News had then arrived of Monroe's appointment as 
Special Envoy, but his coming was regarded with in- 
difference by the French Court. The offer to sell Louisi- 
ana might easily have been delayed for his arrival, but was 
made to Livingston as a person with whom the French 
Government found it satisfactory to treat. When Liv- 
ingston received Talleyrand's offer he knew that the game 
was over and that the United States had won, but he did 
not appreciate the magnitude of the value of the winnings. 

"I would rather," he wrote Madison, "have confined 
our views to smaller objects & I think if we succeed it 
would be good policy to exchange the West bank of 
the district with Spain for the Floridas, reserving New 
Orleans."* 

As Napoleon did not wait for Monroe, neither did Liv- 
ingston, for events in France were moving with lightning 
rapidity. The day after Talleyrand asked Livingston 
if he would buy Louisiana orders were given to stop 
vessels from sailing from French ports and war with Eng- 
land was practically existent. 

The following day Monroe arrived, and that evening 
he dined with Livingston. While they were at dinner 
Livingston happened to glance through the window and 
noticed Barbe de Llarbois, the Minister of the Treasury, 
strolling in the garden. He sent a young relation, who 
was one of the company at dinner, to ask him to come in, 
but Marbois sent back word that he would return later 
and went away. While the gentlemen were over their 
coffee he joined them, and presently went with Livingston 
into an adjoining room, where he remarked that as the 
place was not appropriate for confidential conversation, 
he would be glad if Livingston would call upon him that 
night before eleven o'clock. Livingston's guests hav- 
ing departed, he kept the appointment, and in Marbois 's 
house, close upon the hour of midnight, they discussed 
the terms of the sale of Louisiana. Marbois was a well- 
chosen agent, for he was familiar with America, having 

*Id. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 297 

been Minister there during the Revolution, and was on 
good terms with Livingston and Madison, being a fellow- 
lodger with Madison when he had his love affair with 
Catherine Floyd. The subsequent negotiations were 
detail and in them Monroe assisted. That he had had 
nothing to do with the more important negotiations was 
not Livingston's fault. Talleyrand might have waited 
for him, but did not, and Marbois might have asked him 
to come to his house with Livingston, but failed to do so. 
Livingston could not safely delay his answer to Talley- 
rand or refuse singly a confidential conference with 
Marbois. Although Monroe participated in a final con- 
summation which he had done nothing to produce, his 
mission had served no useful purpose in France. As it 
happened, he was able to give Livingston no essential 
assistance, all the more important steps having been 
taken before his arrival. The offer to sell the whole ter- 
ritory followed Livingston's repeated offers to buy a part 
of it, and would hardly have come if these offers had not 
been so pressingly made. Napoleon had a war with Eng- 
land on his hands, and if he occupied Louisiana would 
have the United States to fight too. He had failed to 
reduce Santo Domingo, and it had absorbed much treasure 
and many soldiers. He needed for his coming struggle 
with England every livre and every soldier he could get. 
In abandoning his original intentions with respect to 
Louisiana, he could boast that he had received "sixty 
millions [of Hvers] for an occupation that will not perhaps 
last a day." He should have added that he had given 
nothing for Louisiana, as he had not kept the bargain by 
which it passed over to him, and that in selling it to the 
United States he had violated his formal promise to Spain 
that he would never alienate it. 

The stupendous purchase that Napoleon thrust upon 
Livingston and Monroe they accepted without authority, 
but the Government upheld them at once. "You were 
justified," Madison wrote to them, "by the solid reasons 
which you give for it, and I am charged by the President 



298 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

to express to you his entire approval of your so 
doing. 

"This approbation is in no respect precluded by the 
silence of your commission and instructions. When these 
were made out, the object of the most sanguine was 
limited to the estabhshment of the Mississippi as our 
boundary." The commission, he said, had been created 
to meet an extraordinary crisis, which "consisted of the 
state of things produced by the breach of our deposit at 
New Orleans, the situation of the French Islands, par- 
ticularly the important Island of St. Domingo; the dis- 
tress of the French finances, the unsettled posture of 
Europe, the increasing jealousy between Great Britain 
and France, and the known aversion of the former to see 
the mouth of the Mississippi in the hands of the latter."* 

Thus had come the end of the long struggle for the free 
navigation of the Mississippi begun by Madison in 1782. 
He thought Livingston had been precipitate in hurrying 
the negotiations without Monroe, but this was an opinion 
springing from the partiality of friendship. 

The acquisition of Louisiana was the only completed 
act of Madison's term as Secretary of State. Other ques- 
tions with foreign nations which fell to his management 
did not reach their most interesting stage until he himself 
became President. 

* MSS, Instructions, Dept. of State. 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE BATTLE OF THE DIPLOMATS 

On March 4, 1809, James Madison was inaugurated as 
President of the United States. Ten thousand strangers 
came to Washington to see the pageant. The retiring 
President and his successor rode in a carriage, escorted 
by the cavalry of Washington and Georgetown, from the 
White House to the Capitol, where in the newly com- 
pleted hall of the House of Representatives Madison read 
his inaugural address in a voice so low that few could hear 
him. To pay a tribute to American manufactures, he 
was clothed in a suit of dark-brown cloth made from the 
wool of Merino sheep bred by Robert R. Livingston at 
his country seat, Clermont, on the Hudson River, the 
wool being carded, spun and woven in his house by his 
daughter, Elizabeth Stevens Livingston, the wife of her 
cousin, Edward P. Livingston.* The oath of office 
was administered by Chief Justice Marshall, and the new 
President returned to Taylor's Hotel, where he reviewed 
the military and held a reception. 

In the evening, at Long's Hotel in Georgetown, oc- 
curred the first inauguration ball ever held. Foreign 
ministers, officials and citizens crowded the rooms to the 
number of four hundred. Mrs. Madison was dressed 
elaborately in yellow velvet, with pearls and a turban on 
her head. Her husband wore a black suit, as he nearly 
always did. The most conspicuous figure in the room 
was Jefferson, and the guests noticed the contrast be- 
tween the glowing good humour of the retiring President's 
face and the dark clouds of care which hung over the new 
President, for Jefferson was in high spirits, laughing, 
* Dept. of State MSS. 

299 



300 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

joking and telling anecdotes, and Madison was worn with 
fatigue and oppressed by a sense of heavy responsibility.* 
Washington Irving came to Washington to seek an office 
at this time and his humour played about the President 
and his wife, whom he described in a familiar letter: 
" Mrs. Madison is a fine, portly, buxom dame, who has a 
smile and a pleasant word for everybody. Her sisters, 
Mrs. Cutts and Mrs. Washington, are like two merry wives 
of Windsor ; but as to Jemmy Madison — ah ! poor Jemmy ! 
he is but a withered little apple- John." 

The White House was to have for the next eight years 
a career such as it had not known before, for Mrs. Adams 
had been there but little and Jefferson had no wife. It 
was newly and handsomely furnished under the super- 
vision of Latrobe soon after the Madisons moved in ; the 
doors were always open and it became the centre of Wash- 
ington life. A bountiful table was spread and the impor- 
tations of foreign wines were a large item of expense. 
Two fine coaches were bought, one for $928 and the other 
for $1,500, a stable of fine horses was kept, and the 
President rode a Kentucky thoroughbred, named 
" Speculator," with a long pedigree. 

Long before Jefferson's administration closed it was 
known that Madison would be his successor. Jefferson 
had no visible agency in naming him, and repelled 
energetically a suggestion to the contrary. But he had 
written to IMadison, December 28, 1795, before he became 
a candidate for the Presidency himself, that he must not 
retire from pubhc life "unless to a more splendid and 
more efficacious post. There I should rejoice to see you; 
I hope, I may say, I shall rejoice to see you." Holding 
these views, and having Madison nearest to him for the 
eight years of his presidency, no word from him was neces- 
sary to make it plain whom he would wish for a successor. 
His correspondence reveals no desire that Monroe should 
be made President. He found it necessary, however, to 
assure Monroe that he was not interfering in the contest 

* "Harper's "Weekly," March 4, 1897. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 301 

between him and Madison for the presidency, as he re- 
garded them both as the two principal pillars on which his 
happiness rested. Monroe, however, was not in good 
humour, and the three musketeers were not working 
together when the chief retired from public life. 

When Monroe was Minister to England in 1806, William 
Pinkney, of Maryland, was named as joint envoy with 
him, and Monroe's pride was wounded, just as Living- 
ston's had been when Monroe was made his associate at 
Paris. Monroe and Pinkney then negotiated and signed 
a treaty with Great Britain. Their instructions had re- 
quired them to obtain: (i) the abandonment of the right 
and practice of impressing American seamen, (2) a resto- 
ration of the right to trade with enemies' colonies, (3) an 
indemnity for recent captures and confiscations by Great 
Britain. The treaty, however, abandoned each one of 
these requirements, and was less advantageous to the 
United States than even the Jay treaty had been. It 
was signed December i, 1806, but before it arrived in the 
United States, Madison warned Monroe that it would be 
rejected if it excluded the essential points of the instruc- 
tions. It was, accordingly, not even sent to the Senate 
to consider, but suppressed by the Executive. Madison 
tried to mitigate Monroe's mortification. "The President 
and all of us," he wrote March 20, 1807, "are fully im- 
pressed with the difficulties which your negotiation had 
to contend with, as well as with the faithfulness and 
ability with which it was supported." He added that 
they were ready to suppose that if they had been in his 
place they would have done as he did, and were certain 
that if he were in their place he would act as they were 
acting.* Monroe was pressed to stay and reopen nego- 
tiations, but he came home with a grievance. It was easy 
to charge that a trap had been laid for him ; that he had 
been sent on a mission which was bound to fail, so that in 
failing he would cease to be a rival candidate for the presi- 
dency ; but it was also charged on the opposite side that 

* Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 404. 



302 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

he had negotiated a treaty favouring England with the 
hope of winning Federalist votes. 

At any rate, Monroe became a candidate for the presi- 
dency and attracted no Federalist votes. He was chosen 
as leader by John Randolph of Roanoke and a few dis- 
affected Republicans who followed Randolph. Jefferson 
and Madison had not long been preserved from being 
quarrelled with by Randolph. He declared that Madison 
had told him he was willing to buy peace with Spain by 
paying tribute to France. Madison also favoured a com- 
promise in the Yazoo claims, and Randolph's opposition 
to the claims was a passion. Therefore, Randolph called 
Madison a mere closet philosopher and a weak and timid 
statesman, and when the congressional caucus nominated 
Madison for the Presidency, Randolph and about sixteen 
others protested. The party of Tertium Quids was then 
organized, and in Virginia a convention was called which 
nominated Monroe against Madison, but when it became 
apparent that Monroe would receive few votes in Vir- 
ginia and none in other States, Randolph's followers gen- 
erally deserted him and voted for Madison. 

General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Caro- 
lina was nominated by the Federalists, but in the elec- 
toral college Madison received 122 votes to Pinckney's 47. 

The position which he occupied when he came to the 
presidency was in many respects a fortunate one. He 
was acceptable to the Republicans because he belonged 
to the same school as Jefferson, and being a less radical 
partisan than Jefferson was not violently opposed by the 
anti-Jefferson party. Some optimists, like Henry Lee, 
held out to him the elusive prospect of uniting parties ; 
but he had no hope of doing so, knowing that the Federal- 
ists could not be placated. He was fortunate, too, in that 
he inherited his office and owed no debts in consequence 
of having attained it. The offices were already filled with 
adherents of his own party, and only as vacancies occurred 
in the natural order of events would he be called upon to 
exercise his appointing power. Even a few Federalists 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 303 

were not afraid to write to him on this subject "You 
are," wrote one from Georgia, August 24, 1809, "(as from 
a retrospect I would belie\'e) in reality only what your 
predecessors only professed to be, a Federal-Republican. 
. . . It has, I believe, been granted on all sides" 
that so far as compatible with Gen'l W.'s engagements 
with or duty towards his compatriots in arms, he was im- 
partial and just in his distribution of patronage, but not 
without a semblance of truth, has it been alleged, that his 
two successors were too much involved in the vortex of 
party spirit to follow his glorious example."* Madison 
did not, as a fact, appoint Federalists to office, but there 
was no office brokerage, no scramble for place, and a far 
higher tone prevailed in the executive departments than 
had characterized Jefferson's administration. 

Madison intended to continue Jefferson's policy which 
was indeed equally his own, but he was hampered from 
the begmnmg by a weak cabinet. To find some one who 
could take his place as Secretary of State and be to him 
what he had been to Jefferson was an impossibility, for 
Monroe, who would have come nearest to filling the re- 
quirements, was in bad humour and smarting under the 
preference shown for Madison over himself. Albert Gal- 
latin, therefore, except I^Iadison the only conspicuously 
efficient man m the old cabinet, was his choice for Secre- 
tary of State, but the President was warned by Wilson 
Gary Nicholas before the inauguration that the Senate 
would not confirm Gallatin's nomination j The preju- 
dice against him because of his foreign birth was never 
overcome and there was a faction of Republicans always 
working against him. Robert Smith had been appointed 
Secretary of the Navy by Jefferson in 180 1. He was a 
member of a weahhy and influential Maryland family 
and his brother Samuel Smith was a Senator from that 
State He was of consequence only because of his friends 
but Jefferson's policy had included the reduction of the 

* "Early Office Seeking."-N. Y. Evening Post, Nov. 26, 1898. 
t Henr>^ Adams, V, 5. 



304 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

naval establishment, and Smith had proved equal to the 
task of administering the affairs of a department of 
diminishing importance. It was suggested that Robert 
Smith's brother, the Senator, who was of the anti-Gallatin 
faction, could be induced to vote for the confirmation of 
Gallatin as Secretary of State, if Robert Smith were 
named for the Treasury Department, but Gallatin would 
not agree to this arrangement because he knew Smith 
would prove incompetent to perform the duties of the 
Treasury Department and that Gallatin himself would be 
obliged to perform them for him. Under these circum- 
stances Smith was appointed Secretary of State, and 
Madison continued to do the work of that office in 
addition to his labours as President. 

Thus, to start with, he had to manage foreign affairs 
an admittedly inefficient man, whom he had appointed 
for political considerations, and who consequently felt 
his allegiance due to the friends who had forced him on 
the President rather than to the President himself. For 
Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton, formerly Governor 
of South Carolina, a man without national reputation or 
following, was selected, and for Secretary of War, Dr. 
William Eustis, of Massachusetts, a respectable man who 
had seen service as a surgeon in the Revolutionary War. 
Csesar A. Rodney was continued as Attorney General. 
The cabinet was factious as well as weak, for Smith and 
Gallatin were bitter enemies. 

After the inauguration resolutions from public meetings 
in all sections of the country came to the President 
assuring him of loyal support and of willingness to ac- 
cept further burdens from the government if they should 
be necessary. By many people it was believed that these 
burdens would soon include a war. General Henry Lee, 
who had long since parted company with Madison in 
politics but who remained steadfast in his friendship, told 
him in 1807 (July 19) that he considered war inevitable, 
and others declared that the time had come for calling 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 305 

upon the States to furnish their quotas of troops.* But 
at the outset of his term ]\Iadison enjoyed a diplomatic 
triumph which for a time confirmed his faith in peaceable 
commercial retaliation as an effective substitute for arms. 
The war between France and England, begun in 1803, 
which hastened a settlement of the Mississippi question 
so advantageous to the United States, soon developed 
measures of hostility between the belligerents which 
affected the United States vitally, and precipitated it into 
war with England, while straining to the breaking point 
its amicable relations with France. The first of these 
measures was taken by the British government. May 16, 

1806, by an order in council declaring the whole coast of 
Europe, from the Elbe in Germany to Brest in France, a 
distace of 800 miles, in a state of blockade. In January, 

1807, another order was issued forbidding neutrals from 
engaging in the coasting trade between ports hostile to 
Great Britain. November 17, 1807, another order pro- 
hibited all neutral trade with France or her allies except 
through Great Britain. These were the famous "British 
Orders in Council." 

Following Great Britain's lead, on November 21, 1806, 
from the "Imperial Camp at Berlin," Napoleon issued a 
decree declaring the British Islands in a state of blockade, 
forbidding all correspondence or trade with them, and 
defining as contraband all English products or manu- 
factures. December 17, 1807, from his "Palace at Milan," 
he decreed that every vessel which should submit to be 
searched by British cruisers, or pay any tax or license to 
the British Government, or be boimd to or from any 
British port, should be denationalized and sequestered. 
These were the "Berlin and Milan Decrees," and about the 
Orders in Council and the French decrees waged the battle 
of the diplomats. So far as the Orders in Council were 
concerned, Madison and a friendly British Minister de- 
termined to make them no longer a subject of contention. 

David Montague Erskine, the British Minister when 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



3o6 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

Madison was inaugurated, was a protege of Charles James 
Fox, was married to an American, and in his person repre- 
sented everything that was conciHatory to America. 
He came to the new administration early in April with 
the proposition that if Madison would withdraw the de- 
mand for Admiral Berkeley's court martial for the attack 
on the Chesapeake he would agree to the other demands 
of the United States in satisfaction for the Chesapeake 
outrage. This was accepted; but the letter of with- 
drawal declared that, while the President forebore to in- 
sist on the punishment, he still thought its infliction would 
have been a just and useful example, "due from his 
Britannic majesty to his own honour." This question 
out of the way, Erskine next offered a repeal of the British 
Orders in Council in exchange for a proclamation by the 
President renewing intercourse with Great Britain. This 
was, of course, accepted, and simultaneously the procla- 
mation and the promise of the British Minister that the 
Orders in Council would be repealed were given to the 
public. In making the arrangement, Erskine had ex- 
ceeded his instructions, under which he could promise a 
repeal of the orders only if America withdrew all restric- 
tions on British commerce, and at the same time re- 
nounced all pretensions to a colonial trade in time of war 
which she might not enjoy in time of peace. The United 
States must also recognize the right of Great Britain to 
capture American vessels attempting to trade with any 
foreign power acting under the French decrees. As 
such trade was forbidden by American law, this pro- 
vision amounted to an agreement that Great Britain 
should execute American law. Although Erskine had 
been authorized to show his instructions to the American 
government, he had not done so, and Madison assumed 
he was acting within his instructions when he made his 
arrangement. It would have been an unheard of pro- 
ceeding if Madison had refused an agreement fair to the 
United States on the ground that the envoy offering it 
was exceeding his authority. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 307 

The proclamation having been issued, the government 
and people of the United States lived in a fool's paradise 
for three months. A thousand ships sailed from American 
ports. The triumph of the policy illustrated in the em- 
bargo and non-intercourse acts was loudly proclaimed, 
and tribute was paid not only to Madison's success but 
to Jefferson's wisdom in inaugurating a policy which had 
resulted so satisfactorily. No one doubted that the 
Erskine agreement was a permanent fact. 

When the rejoicing was still in full progress came a 
sudden dash to all hopes, and rage and despair were 
suddenly substituted. The whole Erskine agreement was 
repudiated by the British Government, Erskine was re- 
called and a new minister appointed in his place.* That 
the new minister could have any acceptable propositions 
to make was not to be expected. He was himself ill chosen 
if conciliation was intended, for Francis James Jackson 
was widely known and detested in Europe and America 
as the agent whom the British Government had chosen 
to demand the surrender of Denmark's fleet in 1807, and 
in default of the surrender to order the wanton bom- 
bardment of the city of Copenhagen ; and in consequence 
of his fulfillment of his mission to the utmost extent of its 
horrors he became known as "Copenhagen Jackson." 
He came to Washington loaded with instructions which 
meant the failure of his mission or the degradation of the 
United States. The basis of these instructions involved 
a direct charge of bad faith against the administra- 
tion, for he was not only to disavow Erskine' s agreement, 
but to give as one reason for the disavowal that the Amer- 
ican government had known when the agreement was 
made that Erskine had exceeded his instructions in mak- 
ing it, and that the President had issued his proclamation 
and published the terms of the agreement in the belief 
that the British Government would thus be forced to 
stand by the unauthorized acts of its agent, j9,ckson 
was instructed to enter complaint against the government 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



3o8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

of the United States for having made the arrangement 
under the circumstances. He might settle the Chesa- 
peake affair only if the United States made a written 
acknowledgment that the interdict against British ships 
had been annulled. The Orders in Council could be re- 
pealed only upon the express prohibition of all trade be- 
tween the United States and France, or countries under 
the French decrees as long as those decrees continued in 
force. But as if this was not enough, Jackson received 
the final instruction that he was not to press for any 
settlement of difficulties, as a settlement was not now as 
important as it had been. If the United States made 
any proposals he was to refer them to his Government 
and await further instructions, and it must be under- 
stood that Great Britain insisted upon her right to pro- 
hibit neutral trade with her enemy. The United States 
could make a treaty acknowledging it, or leave it to be 
regulated by British orders in council.* 

Madison was at Montpelier when the news of Erskine's 
disavowal came, and Gallatin sent him the news and 
urged him to return to Washington, which he did August 
9, remaining only for a few days, during which the procla- 
mation reviving the non-intercourse act against Great 
Britain was prepared and signed. A month later (Sep- 
tember 5) Jackson arrived, but Lladison did not hasten 
his return to Washington to meet him, feeling that the 
disagreeable business before him need not be hurried. 
The confident minister met the President October i. He 
found him "a plain and rather mean-looking little man, 
of great simplicity of manners, and an inveterate enemy 
to form and ceremony." After the formal exchange of 
greetings he was invited to take a seat, and was much 
amused presently when a negro entered the room bearing 
a tray with punch and cake. Jackson had been enter- 
tained in European palaces and sneeringly contrasted 
their ceremony with his homely entertainment at the 
White House, A short time afterwards he dined with 

* Henry Adams, V, 99, et scq. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 309 

the President and was pleased at the deference shown 
him, for he was asked to hand Mrs. Madison in to dinner, 
and in this he saw a sign of concession because his prede- 
cessor, Merry, had been denied the distinction of pre- 
cedence. He next had two important official interviews 
with the Secretary of State, at the second of which the 
fact was extracted from him that he had no propositions 
to offer in place of those of Erskine, which had been dis- 
avowed. The following day he received a formal note 
from Smith saying that further communications between 
them must take the form of writing. Upon objecting to 
this he was told that it was not meant to apply to minor 
official intercourse, but to important matters of which the 
record must be kept beyond the possibility of future mis- 
imderstanding. In reality, Madison could not trust Smith 
to conduct personal interviews skilfully, and as he ex- 
.pected to quarrel with Jackson he wished to control the 
contest, Jackson continued in bad humour and made 
the charge that Erskine's lack of power to make the con- 
cessions he had agreed to had been known to the American 
government. At first Madison did not reply to this 
imputation, but insisted that when a government dis- 
avows the acts of its agent it owes the other government 
affected an explanation ; that the United States was bound 
to assume the adequacy of Erskine's powers, and that 
it still stood ready to accept any honourable settlement 
of the questions disturbing the relations of the two coun- 
tries. In reply Jackson repeated that Madison had known 
the exact import of Erskine's instructions. Madison 
then demanded that before proceeding further Jackson 
should show precisely what his powers were, and closed 
with this sentence concerning knowledge of Erskine's 
instructions : 

"After the explicit and peremptory asseveration that 
this government had no such knowledge, and that with 
such a knowledge no such arrangement would have been 
entered into, the view which you have again presented 
of the subject makes it my duty to apprize you that such 



3IO LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

insinuations are inadmissible in the intercourse of a 
foreign minister with a government that understands 
what it owes to itself." 

Jackson's answer being mere reiteration, on Novem- 
ber 8 he was informed that no further communications 
would be received from him. Thus terminated Jack- 
son's encounter with the "plain and rather mean-looking 
little man." The defeated minister sought consolation 
among the Federalists, who generally upheld his course. 
In Baltimore he received much social attention, in New 
York still more, but in Boston he was given an ovation, 
and a pubHc dinner was held in his honour, at which 
Senator Timothy Pickering offered this toast : "The 
world's lost hope — Britain's fast -anchored isle." 

But if " Britain's fast-anchored isle" was determined to 
reduce the United States to the condition of a colony and 
leave it an independent nation only in name, France was 
equally determined to disregard its rights. There was, 
however, always this to be said: The original sin 
against neutrals, as Madison expressed it, lay with Great 
Britain, and her aggressions were far in excess of those 
of France. December 21, 1808, in response to a Senate 
resolution, Madison made a list of acts, decrees, orders 
and proclamations of foreign governments affecting 
neutral rights of commerce. From 1792 to 1808 there 
had been eighteen of such acts by France, three by Spain, 
and thirty-one by Great Britain. Moreover, the spolia- 
tions of Great Britain were harder to bear because our 
commerce with her was larger than that with all other 
countries combined. 

When news of Erskine's agreement reached Paris it 
was proposed by Napoleon to modify the French decrees 
in a way favourable to American interests,* but as soon 
as Erskine's disavowal was known it became certain that 
unless America resisted British pretensions she must 
expect continued oppression from France. The only 
neutral in the world was then the United States — all the 

* Henry Adams, V, 139, et seq. 



LIFE OF JxUIES MADISON 311 

other nations were involved in the convulsive struggle 
between England and France, and the United States was 
being ground between both nations. March 23, 18 10, 
Napoleon issued the Rambouillet decree, providing for 
the confiscation of American ships in France, Holland and 
Italy. Between April, 1809, and April, 18 10, according 
to the report of the American Consul at Paris, fifty-seven 
American ^hips were seized in France, fifty-four in the 
ports of S/ain, twenty-eight in Naples, eleven in Holland, 
making one hundred and thirty-four in all, valued at more 
than a milHon dollars. In point of fact, from now on 
Napoleon regarded American ships as English ships and 
subject to the same treatment. He mitigated his decree, 
however, so far as to treat as French ships those carrying 
licenses issued by French Consuls, permitting them to 
enter French ports and clear with French cargoes. Of 
Napoleon's policy Madison said: "The confiscations by 
Bonaparte comprise robbery, theft and breach of trust, 
and exceed in turpitude any of his enormities not wasting 
human blood." Confiscation of American property 
and imprisonments of American seamen were the charac- 
teristics of Napoleon's policy. The repeal May i, 18 10, 
by Congress of the non-intercourse act left it to the Presi- 
dent, in case either Great Britain or France should repeal 
her measures against the United States, to prohibit by 
proclamation all intercourse with the country not mak- 
ing such a repeal. Upon information of this act France 
held out the promise that if England would revoke her 
orders or the United States would cause England to 
respect her rights the French decrees would be repealed. 
Madison had instructed Armstrong that in addition 
France must agree to compensate the United States for 
spoHations committed, but this condition was not 
pressed, and in August AiTnstrong wrote to Pinkney at 
London that the French decrees had been withdrawn. 
The information had been officially conveyed to him in a 
note from the Due de Cadore, French Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, August 5, 18 10, and by way of England the news 



312 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

reached Washington. The President believed it. It 
was authentic information conveyed through authentic 
channels; but no new French decree repealing the old 
decrees appeared to confirm it. 

Under ordinary circumstances, in dealing with a 
nation of ordinary honesty an act stated as this repeal 
was stated would be accepted without doubt, but the 
times were not ordinary and Napoleon's definition 
of diplomacy was the art of lying. Nevertheless, 
the administration believed in the repeal and it 
wished to do so. Basing his action upon it, Madison 
began at once the last effort at peaceable coercion of 
Great Britain by issuing his proclamation reviving the 
law of non-intercourse with that power. He believed 
that the efiiect would be to so cripple her that she would 
have to make terms, or herself begin a war to compel the 
United States to renew commercial intercourse with her. 
The proclamation was issued November 2, and said: 
"It has been officially made known to this government 
that the said edicts of France have been so revoked as 
that they ceased, on the first day of the present month, 
to violate the neutral commerce of the United States." 
Simultaneously, a circular was issued by Gallatin to the 
various ports of the United States announcing that com- 
mercial intercourse with Great Britain would cease Feb- 
ruary 2, 181 1. 

Were the decrees actually repealed ? A new Minister, 
Serurier, came from France, but he had nothing to say, 
except that the word of the French Minister of Foreign 
Affairs must not be doubted. He was instructed by 
Napoleon to say that the United States would receive 
every kind of aid and privilege from France if it decided 
to maintain the neutrality of its flag — ^that Napoleon 
would even not oppose the acquisition of the Floridas by 
the United States. In France Jonathan Russell, the 
American Charge, was informed that ships really American 
would not be harmed — that the difficulty was to tell 
American and English ships apart. These fair words 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 313 

were taken to mean that the decrees had been repealed. 
It was expedient to accept them in that sense. 

When Pinkney withdrew from London he demanded 
the repeal of the British orders on the theory that the 
French decrees had been repealed, but Great Britain 
replied that he was wrong in his facts. Simultaneously 
with his departure Augustus G. Foster was sent as British 
Minister to the United States. Nothing really was hoped 
from his mission, except to gain time by further negotia- 
tion, for he had no concessions to offer. But in the mean- 
time (May 16, 181 1) the long-standing Chesapeake affair 
was rendered unimportant in the controversy, not by ex- 
change of notes, but by exchange of shots between the 
American frigate "The President," under John Rodgers, 
and the British ship "The Little Belt." War had not 
been declared, and there can be no doubt that the first 
shot was fired by the British ship, but it is also a fact that 
she was beaten by the American ship. Madison viewed 
the incident without alarm: "The occurrence between 
Rodgers and the British ship of war," he wrote to Jeffer- 
son, June 7, 181 1,* " not unlikely to bring on repetitions, 
will probably end in an open rupture or a better under- 
standing, as the calculations of the British Government 
may prompt or dissuade from war." It was when war 
was about to be declared that news came of fresh outrages 
by France and proof positive that France was acting 
under her decrees even if she had repealed them. Macon, 
of North Carolina, said "the devil himself could not tell 
which government, England or France, is the most 
wicked, "t ^ 

By a law of August 26, 1 794, " I'an 1" de la Repubhque 
Fran^oise," Danton signing the act, Madison had been 
made a citizen of France. The honour intended was 
somewhat marred by the ignorance of the French As- '', 

sembly of small facts, for the act was for " N. Maddison" .^ ^ 
and included in it "Jean Hamilton," presimiably Alex- 

* Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 512. 
t Henry Adams, VI, 196. 




1 



314 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

ander Hamilton, whose sympathy with the French 
Revolution was not apparent.* The French Republic 
had, however, intended to record an obligation to leading 
lights in American public Hfe, but the sense of obHgation 
did not descend to Napoleon, and he treated the United 
States and his fellow citizen Madison as though they were 
enemies instead of friends. Thus with both France and 
England the United States stood in a hostile attitude, 
and with Spain, too, our relations were soon inamicable, 
but as it happened through our own acts. 

February 24, 1804, Congress passed a law extending 
customs regulations over the new territory bought from 
France, and authorized the President, whenever he 
should deem it expedient to do so, to make the bay 
and river ]\Iobile to Pensacola a separate district and 
appoint the necessary customs officers. This was known 
as the Mobile act, and it excited such an indignant 
protest from Yrujo, the Spanish Minister, that Jefferson, 
in issuing his proclamation defining the new districts, 
did not extend authority over the territory claimed by 
Spain. Five years later the population, which had been 
increasing in parts of the new territory, became uneasy, 
held conventions, and part of them issued a declaration 
of independence and caused John Rhea, their newly 
elected president, to ask for annexation to the United 
States ; but Madison refused to recognize the revolutionary 
government, because the territory in question belonged, 
as he contended, to the United States. The opportunity 
of rendering the claim impregnable could not be resisted, 
and October 27, 18 10, Madison issued a proclamation 
ordering the governor of Orleans Territory to take pos- 
session of the district. The proclamation stated that 
failure to occupy it before had not been due ^ to any 
distrust of the title, as the laws passed on the subject had 
shown, but in confidence that discussion and negotiation 
would give possession later. The confusion now exist- 

* The original act is in the possession of F. D. Maguire, Esq., of 
"Washington. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 315 

ent in the territory by the late uprising forced immediate 
action; but even now "in the hands of the United States 
it will not cease to be a subject of fair and friendly nego- 
tiations and adjustment." This was a bold stroke, but 
beneath the casuistry of the proclamation could be seen 
the determination of the President to take the territory, 
because he deemed its possession by the United States to 
be necessary for the protection of the Mississippi. Spain 
was powerless to retaliate, for she was beset on all sides— 
by her revolting colonies in America and by France and 
England in Europe. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

THE DECLARATION OF WAR 

In March, 1829, when Henry Clay was the most con- 
spicuous figure in American pubHc hfe, he dined one 
Sunday with his political opponent, Samuel Harrispn 
Smith, and the two fell to discussing the relative merits as 
statesmen of Madison and Jefferson. "Mr. Clay," says 
Mrs. Smith in an account of the dinner which she wrote to 
her son, "preferred Madison, and pronounced him after 
Washington our greatest Statesman & first political 
writer. He thought Jefferson had most genius — Madison, 
most judgment & common sense — Jefferson a visionary 
& theorist, often betrayed by his enthusiasm into rash & 
imprudent & impracticable measures — Madison, cool, 
dispassionate — practical, safe. "* 

It is not probable that Clay, who was an honourable 
man, would have used such language about Madison, if 
he himself had known that Madison was a man so am- 
bitious and so weak that he was willing to buy a renomi- 
nation to the presidency by plunging his country into an 
iniquitous war. Yet the Federalists charged that this 
was the very thing that Madison did, and that Clay sold 
the nomination for the war. 

It was when news of more French outrages upon Ameri- 
can commerce came, early in the summer of 181 2, that, 
according to the story, Madison was visited by a committee 
of Republican leaders of the House of Representatives, 
with Henry Clay at the head, and informed that he must 
send a war message to Congress or the caucus of Republi- 
can members soon to be held would nominate some one 

* Family papers of J. Henley Smith, Esq., of Washington. 

316 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 317 

else for the presidency. He sent the message and re- 
ceived the nomination. 

Mr. Henry Adams, in his life of Albert Gallatin,* gives 
all the proof of this charge that the Federalists could 
produce, and pronounces it unfounded. It appears that 
James Fisk, a member of Congress from Vermont, de- 
clared he was himself a member of the committee which 
sold the nomination, but Henry Clay, who was the alleged 
head of the committee, pronounced the story untrue, and 
so did his friends. Timothy Pickering, to whom, of 
course, the charge, if true, would have been effective 
ammunition with which to damage his enemies, wrote to 
Abraham Shepherd, February 12, 18 14: "At the last 
session, Mr. Hanson, noticing the manner in which the 
war was produced, in addressing Clay, the Speaker, spoke 
to this effect: 'You know, sir, that the President was 
coerced into the measure; that a committee called upon 
him and told him that if he did not recommend a declara- 
tion of war he would lose his election. And then he 
sent his message recommending the declaration.' 

"Now, my dear sir, I learn from Mr. Hanson that 
Colonel Thomas Worthington, Senator, on his way home 
to Ohio, gave you the above information, and mentioned 
the names of Henry Clay, Felix Grundy, and some other 
or others who composed the committee. This is a very 
important fact, and I pray you will do me the favour to 
recollect and state to me all the information you possess 
on the subject ; at what time and from whom you received 
it." 

Shepherd replied February 20. He said Senator Worth- 
ington had visited him for two days early in April, 181 2, 
and had insisted in conversation that war was inevitable, 
but that Bayard would first be sent to England to make 
a last effort to prevent it ; that Madison had consented to 
send Bayard ; that he, Worthington, had had frequent 
conversations with Bayard and Madison on the subject, 
and that Shepherd could rely upon it that the measure 

* P. 456, et seq. 



3i8 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

would be adopted. After war had been declared, Worth- 
ington again stopped for a night with Shepherd and ex- 
pressed his mortification that the mission had never been 
appointed. "He said," proceeds Shepherd, "as soon as 
he returned to the city (Washington) from my house he was 
informed of what had taken place by a set of hot-headed, 
violent men, and he immediately waited on Mr. Madison 
to know the cause. Mr. Madison told him that his 
friends had waited on him and said if he did send Mr. 
Bayard to England they would forsake him and be op- 
posed to him, and he was compelled to comply, or bound 
to comply, with their wishes. I then asked General 
Worthington who were those hot-headed, violent men. 
He said Mr. Clay was the principal. I cannot positively 
say, but think Grundy was mentioned with Clay . . . 
I did not ask him how he got the information. As I 
understood the business, a caucus was held and Mr. Clay 
and others appointed, and waited on the President in 
the absence of Worthington, which will ascertain when 
this business took place." 

Pickering, if he pursued his investigation, found noth- 
ing further to support Hanson's charge, for he allowed 
the matter to drop. Shepherd's letter merely showed 
that the President had at one stage contemplated a final 
mission to England, although Worthington himself be- 
lieved it would be useless, and that the President told 
him the leaders of the party would not support him in 
sending his mission. 

George Bancroft, the historian, visited Madison in 
March, 1836, and at the time made this memorandum of a 
conversation with him : 

"Madison was a friend of peace. But he told me 'that 
the British left no option; that war was made neces- 
sary; that under the circumstances of the negotiations 
with England war was unavoidable.' He further said, , 
'he knew the unprepared state of the country, but he' 
esteemed it necessary to throw forward the flag of the 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 319 

country, sure that the people would press onward and 
defend it.'" 

The truth is that a war message was the only kind that 
Madison could send, for his commercial weapons had 
failed and the resources of diplomacy were exhausted. 

Any one who follows the intricacies of the diplomatic 
contest before the war message will find in the manage- 
ment of the case of the United States strength and ca- 
pacity. Here the President was a master, and until Mon- 
roe succeeded Smith he worked without aid, writing all 
the papers which Smith signed as Secretary of State. 
Outside of the cabinet room Smith criticized these papers, 
and his brother in the Senate opposed and defeated the 
administration's bill for restricting commerce in 18 10. 
As both members of the family were engaged in com- 
merce, Madison believed their opposition was governed 
by their pecuniary interests. It became evident, there- 
fore, that Smith must be dismissed, but Albert Gallatin 
hastened the cabinet crisis by writing Madison a letter in 
March, 181 1, in which he resigned, pointing out the in- 
harmonious condition of the cabinet and the injurious 
effect on the administration.* Madison refused to ac- 
cept Gallatin's resignation, and caused Richard Brent, 
Senator from Virginia, to communicate with Monroe and 
find out if he would accept Smith's place. A favourable 
reply being received, f Madison dismissed Smith. The 
conversation in which he did so was a peculiar one. No 
hint of what was impending was conveyed to Smith, nor 
was anything done to soften the blow. With fatal good 
temper Madison told him he was aware of his opposition 
to measures which in cabinet council he apjDcared to ap- 
prove, that he was incompetent, that Madison himself 
had been obliged to do his work, that the business of his 
department was conducted carelessly and grave blunders 
had resulted. Out of consideration for appearances, 

* Adams's "Gallatin," 434. 

t Monroe to Brent, March 18, 1811, Monroe's Writings (Hamilton), 
V, 178. 



320 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

however, he was willing to appoint him Minister to Russia. 
Smith made a feeble denial of disloyalty and said he would 
prefer to be Minister to England or Judge of the Supreme 
Court, but Madison said he had other views as to those 
places, and that, besides, Smith could not be confirmed 
by the Senate for the Supreme bench, because he had not 
practised law for a long time and had lost his standing 
before the Senate. When Smith endeavoured again to 
deny the charge of disloyalty, Madison alluded specifically 
to the defeat of the non-intercourse bill, and added sig- 
nificantly that he could not find the motive for the op- 
position to that measure, unless he looked more deeply 
into human nature than he cared to do.* The president 
did not spare him, but he took the reproaches and insults 
heaped upon him tamely and at first intended to accept 
the mission offered him. Later, hearing it was said that 
it was only thrown as a sop to get rid of him, which was 
the truth, his pride revolted and he declined. He went 
into active opposition, printed an attack on Madison, 
and his family and friends became personal and political 
enemies of Madison's. One charge they made which 
Madison could not answer. He and Smith had been 
colleagues for nearly eight years in Jefferson's cabinet and 
Madison knew Smith's capacities as an official perfectly 
well. How did it happen, then, that he appointed to the 
most important office under him an incompetent man? 
He had, in fact, paid a costly price for the support of a 
faction and had not received the support. 

On April i, 1811, James Monroe took charge of the 
State Department, and any notion he may have had of 
changing the government's policy vanished before the 
Madison policy, which he found firmly entrenched and of 
which he himself became the instrument. Although that 
policy meant war, the government was not prepared. 
The army was disorganized, the navy was on a peace 
basis, the treasury was nearly empty, the non-intercourse 
act of 1809 having taken from it an important part of its 

* Memorandum of Conversation; Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 495 et seq. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 321 

revenue. January 3, 18 10, the President recommended 
the enHstment for a short term of twenty thousand men 
and that the subject of a na\^ be taken up by Congress. 
The non-intercourse act of 1809 was to expire by its terms 
with this session of Congress (18 10), and a bill drawn up 
by Gallatin and approved by Madison was offered in its 
place. It provided that American ports should be closed 
to all British and French vessels, public and private, but 
British and French merchandise might be imported 
directly from the place of origin in American ships. This 
bill was introduced by Macon in the House and passed. 
It was the administration bill which Samuel Smith op- 
posed and defeated in the Senate. The contest between 
the two houses terminated in a compromise by which the 
non-intercourse law was repealed, but the President was 
authorized, in case either Great Britain or France should 
repeal its measures against the United States, to revive 
by proclamation the non-intercourse law against the 
country not making the repeal. The avoidance of re- 
sponsibility by relegating to the President functions 
which Congress should itself have performed was merely 
an evidence of the extraordinary inefficiency of that body. 
Madison said that the restoration of commerce would 
create a revulsion of feeling in favour of commercial re- 
strictions, and he still pinned his faith to them. To 
Pinkney in London he wrote May 23, 18 10: "At the 
next meeting of Congress it will be found, according to 
present appearances, that instead of an adjustment w4th 
either of the belligerents, there is an increased obstinacy 
in both ; and that the inconveniences of the embargo and 
non-intercourse have been exchanged for the greater 
sacrifices, as well as disgrace, resultmg from a submission 
to the predatory systems in force. It will not be wonder- 
ful, therefore, if the passive spirit which marked the late 
session of Congress should at the next meeting be reversed to 
the opposite point ; more especially as the tone of the nation 
has never been as low as that of its Representatives."* 

* Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 476. 



322 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

The tone of the Representatives was then deplorably 
low. There was not in the whole Congress a leader of 
power, and the President did not furnish the inspiration 
which the Congress lacked. His message of November 
29, 1809, was a calm, unimpassioned presentation, in 
which he told Congress it must decide on the alternatives 
before it. But Congress was so torn by contending fac- 
tions, each weak in itself, that it could decide on nothing. 
It proposed to decrease the expenditure for the army and 
navy. It rejected unanimously the motion for an increase 
of taxation made by Eppes of Virginia. The charter of 
the Bank of the United States was to expire by limitation 
March 11, 181 1, and Congress failed to pass the bill for a 
new bank, although Madison was known to favour it, 
and the bank had been the mainstay of the treasury. 

The new Congress was summoned to meet in Novem- 
ber, a month earlier than the regular time. It comprised 
a new generation of men, just entering on the public stage 
to keep the public gaze for years to come. Henry Cla}", 
John C. Calhoun, Langdon Cheves, Felix Grundy, Richard 
M. Johnson, and a few others, constituted the leaders of 
what were known as "the young war Republicans." 
They approached the impending crisis untrammelled by 
participation in the old controversies upon which the 
existing parties were formed, and for the time being stood 
together for a broad nationalism. One thing especially 
they stood for was action. War was practically existent. 
New York was blockaded; American ships were seized 
by British ships ; American sailors were impressed. 

The famous war message of June i, 181 2, was not the 
first suggestion of war made by the President to Congress. 
In his message of January 3, 18 10, when he asked for a 
volunteer force of twenty thousand men, he said they 
were " to be enlisted for a short period and held in a state 
of organization and readiness for actual service at the 
shortest warning. 

" I submit to the consideration of Congress, moreover, 
the expediency of such a classification and organization 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 323 

of the militia as will best insure prompt and successive 
aids from that source, adequate for emergencies which 
may call for them."* 

In his third annual message (November 5, 181 1) he 
said: "With this evidence of hostile inflexibility (of 
Great Britain) in trampling on rights which no indepen- 
dent nation can relinquish, Congress will feel the duty of 
putting the United States into an armour and an attitude 
demanded by the crisis, and corresponding with the 
national spirit and expectations. 

"I recommend, accordingly, that adequate provision 
be made for filling the ranks and prolonging the enlist- 
ments of the regular troops; for an auxiliary force to be 
engaged for a more limited term ; for the acceptance of a 
volunteer corps, whose patriotic ardour may court a par- 
ticipation in urgent services; for detachments as they 
may be wanted of other portions of the militia, and for 
such a preparation of the great body as will proportion its 
usefulness to its intrinsic capacities, "f 

This was not glowing language, but the President would 
not have used it if he had desired to restrain a Congress 
led by hot-headed men. He did not speak lightly, and 
he meant to go to war. As he explained in a letter to the 
South Carolina Legislature, December 20, 18 13: "When 
finally and formally assured by the British government 
that its hostile measures would not be revoked, no alter- 
native was left to the United States but irretrievable 
degradation, or the lesser calamity of a resort to arms."| 

Before this he wrote John Nicholas, April 2, 1813 : "It 
had become impossible to avoid, or even delay, war at a 
moment when we were not prepared for it, and when it 
was certain that effective preparations would not take 
place whilst the question of war was undecided. . . 
The calculations of the Executive were, that it would be 
best to open the war with a force of a kind and amount 

* " Messages and Papers of the Presidents," I, 478. 

tM, 562. 

$ Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 579. 



324 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

that would be soon procured, and that might strike an 
important blow before the enemy, who was known to dis- 
believe the approach of such an event, could be rein- 
forced."* 

On March 23, 181 2, Serurier wrote to his government 
that Monroe had told him a few days before that within 
a week the President had intended to propose an embargo, 
to be followed by a declaration of war, but that their plans 
had been upset by news of the French outrages. f Never- 
theless, when Foster called on Monroe he got no satis- 
faction, and April i the recommendation for the embargo 
went in. It was carried for sixty days by a vote of 
seventy to forty in the House ; in the Senate, by a vote of 
twenty to thirteen, it was extended to ninety days, thus 
making it more a measure of negotiation than of war. 
The majority in Congress was obviously too small for the 
union necessary for war purposes. 

In May, 181 2, "The Hornet," sloop of war, arrived 
bearing news from England, and members of Congress 
thronged the State Department to hear if she had brought 
news of any concessions. On the contrary. Great Britain 
reasserted that her orders in council would not be re- 
scinded against America even if France excepted America 
from her decrees. 

On June i the expected war message went in. It was 
a paper of ability and strength. The question of im- 
pressment, which had for some time been in abeyance 
pending the discussion of other grievances, was now 
put first in the order of grievances against Great 
Britain, followed by a statement of the harassment of 
our coasts, the holding up of entering and returning com- 
merce, the plundering of our commerce from "pretended 
blockades, without the practicability of applying one." 
The President said, also, illegal seizures had been made 
by France and outrages perpetrated on our vessels 
and citizens; but, he added, " I abstain at this time from 

* Id., 579. 

t Henry Adams, VI, 194-195. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 325 

recommending to the consideration of Congress definite 
measures with respect to that nation." 

Two days after the message was received Calhoun 
brought in his report in favour of war, and June 4 it was 
adopted in the House by a vote of seventy-nine to forty- 
nine. On June 18 it went through the Senate by a vote 
of nineteen to thirteen. The next day the President's 
proclamation was issued and he visited the War and Navy 
Departments, a thing he had never done before, "stimu- 
lating everything," as a private letter declared, "in a 
manner worthy of a little commander-in-chief, with his 
little round hat and huge cockade."* 

In truth he was not an inspiring figure to lead in war. 
The hour had come but the man was wanting. Not a 
scholar in governments ancient and modem, not an unim- 
passioned writer of careful messages, but a robust 
leader to rally the people and unite them to fight 
was what the time needed, and what it did not find in 
Madison. 

Nor was the emergency met by the Congress which 
declared war. The President had asked for an increase 
in the army, and he was given more troops than he asked 
for, but no increase of taxation was imposed, and the pay 
offered the soldiers was absurdly small. The War De- 
partment comprised beyond the Secretary not a dozen 
clerks and was impotent to meet the emergency. A 
request for two assistant secretaries of war was voted 
down, because Eustis was thought to be incompetent 
and his dismissal was desired. The militia force was in- 
creased, but authority to use it outside of the United 
States was not given. Of the preliminary military 
measures Madison sarcastically observed to Jefferson 
(February 7, 1812) "With a view to enable the Executive 
to step at once into Canada, they have provided, after 
two months' delay, for a regular force requiring twelve 
to raise it, and after three months' for a volunteer 

Adams':^Vl'^2?'''^ ^° Benjamin Rush, June 20, 1812, Qu. Henry 



326 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

force, on terms not likely to raise it at all for that 
object."* 

Before war was declared the President seriously 
thought of fighting both France and Great Britain. It 
might, he thought, hasten a peace with either power and 
a settlement of the question involved. On the other hand 
it would close all Europe to our ships and thus render 
them useless, and the belligerents might choose to pro- 
long the war indefinitely in their own interests. He 
had no confidence that a war with both parties would 
attract the Federalists, as they were set in their deter- 
mination to make capital out of all the difficulties of the 
administration. Monroe was not disposed to agree to 
this estimate of the opposition. "We have been so long 
dealing in the small way of embargoes, non-intercourse, 
and non-importation with menaces, etc., that the British 
Government had not believed us," he said. He thought 
we would have internal quiet if we opened our ports, and 
that we should " Trade and fight and fight and trade." 

Madison's renomination for the presidency was effected 
May 1 8, a month before war was declared, by a unanimous 
vote and without visible opposition in the caucus, but 
De Witt Clinton was put in nomination by a convention 
in New York, and the Federalists supported him, his plan 
being to attract to himself all elements of opposition, 
however irreconcilable they might be the one to the 
other. He stood for nothing, therefore, except opposition. 
Of Clinton's ambition to.be President Madison had been 
warned by Morgan Lewis, May 12, 181 1, when he wrote 
that Clinton, who was then Mayor of the city of New 
York and Lieutenant-Governor of the State, intended to 
be Governor next and then go to Washington, if he could ; 
that he was bitterly opposed to Madison, who had made 
a mistake in permitting Clintonians to hold the offices. 
Clinton had been actively stirring up strife and discon- 
tent over the distribution of patronage. t Nevertheless, 

* Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 526. 
t Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 327 

Clinton, a Republican, received in the electoral college 
the votes of the Federalist States, all of New England, ex- 
cept Vermont, voting for him, together with New York, 
New Jersey and Delaware. Maryland gave him five 
votes and six to Madison. Madison received 128 votes and 
Clinton 89, but in the Congressional elections the Federal- 
ist gains were considerable, there being twice as many 
Federalists returned for the fourteenth Congress as there 
had been for the thirteenth. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

THE WAR PRESIDENT 

From the very beginning the conduct of the war 
was a failure. August 15 Hull surrendered at De- 
troit and Fort Dearborn was also destroyed, thus 
giving Great Britain control of the lakes in the 
West. These disasters were attributed in part to 
the inefficiency of the War Department, but the Presi- 
dent did not escape censure. The Secretary of the Navy 
was believed to be as incompetent as the Secretary of 
War, and Dearborn, the commanding general of the 
army, was an old man, who enjoyed no one's confidence 
save Madison's. Monroe said he was "advanced in years, 
infirm, and had given no proof of activity or military 
talent during the year" (1812). In the cabinet Monroe 
was the only one who enjoyed the confidence of the people 
and brought their force to the support of the administra- 
tion. Gallatin was a far abler man than Monroe and was 
devoted to Madison's interests, but his enemies were 
implacable and in Congress opposed every measure he 
suggested. Monroe had seen service as a captain in the 
Revolution and had military aspirations. Seeing the 
sad plight into which the army had fallen, he volunteered 
to take the field, and a way was sought to put him in com- 
mand of the army. Early in December, 181 2, Eustis 
retired as Secretary of War, he himself recognizing that 
public opinion demanded his sacrifice. December 14 
Monroe was made Secretary of War pro tempore. Such 
a concentration of power in the hands of the two Vir- 
ginians caused general complaint, especially among Re- 
publicans in New York, so Monroe was put back in the 
State Department, and at the same time the project of his 

328 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 329 

taking the field was definitely abandoned on account of 
the difficulties in the way. 

General John Armstrong, of New York, lately Minister 
to France, was selected as Secretary of War, and entered 
upon his duties January 14, 1813. The objections to him 
were fatal to his usefulness. Long diplomatic service 
in which his ability was conspicuous had not fitted him 
for duty as an executive officer when quick decision and 
action were needed. He was an indolent man and energy 
was needed, and he was a member of the Clinton faction 
in New York and loyal co-operation in the cabinet was 
essential. He was unpopular in the West, and his nomi- 
nation was confirmed by a majority of three votes only 
both Kentucky Senators voting against him; and Ken- 
tucky under Henry Clay's leadership was the most en- 
thusiastic State in the Union in support of the war. Mon- 
roe, Gallatin and Jones, the new Secretary of the Navy, 
all distrusted Armstrong. Paul Hamilton resigned as 
Secretary of the Navy, probably on a hint from Madison, 
soon after Eustis left, and January 12, 18 13, William 
Jones, of Pennsylvania, took his place. He had seen 
some sea service, was a merchant and had been a member 
of Congress. His ability was respectable but his career 
had been a negative one. Here were changes in the chief 
places in the cabinet at a critical time, and a reorganiza- 
tion of the executive departments. Of the original 
cabinet Gallatin alone remained. 

When Congress met in November, 181 2, the President 
put the state of the country before it and the picture was 
not a pleasing one. He recited as one of the "incidents 
to the measures of the war" "the refusal of the Governors 
of Massachusetts and Connecticut to furnish the required 
detachments of militia toward the defense of the maritime 
frontier. The refusal was founded on a novel and un- 
fortunate exposition of the provisions of the Constitu- 
tion relating to the militia . . , It is obvious that 
if the authority of the United States to call into service 
and command the militia for the public defense can be 



330 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

thus frustrated, even in a state of declared war and, 
of course, under apprehensions of invasion preceding war, 
they are not one nation for the purpose most of all re- 
quiring it, and that the public safety may have no other 
resource than in those large and permanent military 
establishments which are forbidden by the principles of 
our free government, and against the necessity of which 
the militia were meant to be a constitutional bulwark." 
But the President offered no suggestion for stopping so 
grave a defiance of federal authority. He told of his 
instructions to Jonathan Russell, who remained as charge 
at London, to agree to an armistice on condition that 
impressments should stop, and of England's refusal. 
Opportunity for a reconsideration would, he said, be 
kept open, but "it would be unwise to relax our measures 
in any respect on a presumption of such a result."* 

Officially the President put the best aspect possible on 
the state of affairs. Personally he did not deceive him- 
self about the prevailing feeling of discontent. "I have 
not been unaware," he wrote to William Wirt, Septem- 
ber 30, 1813, " of the disappointment and discontent gain- 
ing ground with respect to the war on Canada, or of the 
use to which they were turned against the administration. 
I have not been less aware that success alone would put 
an end to them. This is the test by which public opinion 
decides more or less in all cases, and most of all, perhaps, 
in that of military events where there is the least oppor- 
tunity of judging by any other. No stimulus, therefore, 
has been wanting to the exertions necessary to render our 
arms successful in the quarter where they have failed. 

" How far these exertions will prevail remains to be 
seen; and how far past failure is to be ascribed to the 
difficulties incident to the first stages of a war commenced 
as the present necessarily was ; to the personal faults of 
those entrusted with command ; to the course pursued by 
the National Legislature; or to mismanagements by the 
Executive Department, must be left to those who will 

* "Messages and Papers of the Presidents," I, 514, et seq. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 331 

decide impartially, and on fuller information than may 
now exist."* 

He explained what he had hoped to do. By taking 
advantage of the belief in Great Britain that the United 
States would not go to war, he had intended to open 
hostilities by quickly raising an army on short enHst- 
m'ents and reducing Canada from Montreal upwards before 
the enemy could make preparations to defend it. Con- 
gress had given him too big an army, had offered too little, 
bounty and pay for its quick recruiting, had itself delayed 
too much, had refused to put the War Department on an 
effective basis, and the administration's plans had failed. 

The blame for the most shameful instance of the failure 
of plans in the course of the war could not, however, be 
laid at the door of Congress, but fell upon his own imme- 
diate subordinates, acting and faiHng to act imder his own 
eye. On the night of August 22, 181 4, he received this 
hurried note from Monroe, who was busying himself in 
inspecting the military defenses of Washington : 

"The enemy are advancing six miles on the road to 
the Wood- Yard and our troops retiring. Our troops 
were on the march to meet them, but too small a body to 
engage. General Winder proposes to retire until he can 
collect them in a body. The enemy are in full march for 
Washington. Have the materials prepared to destroy 
the bridges. "James Monroe. 

"Tuesday, 9 o'clock." 

At a cabinet meeting on July i the possibility of an 
attack on the capital was fully discussed and plans for its 
defense were drawn up and entrusted to the Secretary of 
War to be carried out. General Wihiam H. Winder, of 
Maryland, brother of Levin Winder, Governor of the 
State, being selected as the military commander. These 
plans would have proved adequate for their purpose, but 
they were never carried out, because Armstrong did not 
believe Washington would be attacked. About the 
middle of August it became known that Admiral Cock- 

* Works (Cong. Ed.), H, 573, ^i ^^Q- 



332 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

bum had arrived in Chesapeake Bay and was proceeding 
up the Patuxent River, and the city of Washington fell 
into a panic. The evening of August 22 the President, 
accompanied by his cabinet, rode out to see the troops 
vmder Winder, which were encamped ten miles from 
Bladensburg, and the next morning before nine o'clock 
they passed him in review. That day the records of the 
State and War Departments were taken first to an old 
miU on the Virginia side of the Potomac near Chain Bridge 
about six miles above V/ashington, and then to Lees- 
burg.* The President remained with the troops the 
23d, and in the evening went back to the White House, 
where, about nine o'clock, he received a discouraging 
report from General Winder in person. Early the next 
morning, having read a note from Winder to Armstrong 
saying he needed counsel, he repaired to headquarters. 
Meeting Armstrong there he authorized him to go to the 
troops and give such assistance and counsel to General 
Winder as occasion required.! He then intended to him- 
self remain on the field, for he remarked to Campbell, the 
Secretary of the Treasury, that any conflict in orders 
could be settled by consulting him " as he would not him- 
self be far distant." Shortly before ten o'clock Winder 
started for Bladensburg, and a little while afterwards the 
President followed with the troops. Before doing so 
CampbeU had given him a pair of pistols, which he put in 
his holsters. He and Attorney-General Rush were riding 
briskly towards Bladensburg, and had nearly gone into 
the British lines, when a volunteer scout told them of 
their danger, and they turned into an orchard, where they 
joined Monroe and Armstrong. While there the troops 
about them were fired on and retreated. The President 
then said to Monroe and Armstrong that "it would now 
be proper for us to retire to the rear, leaving the military 
movements to military men," and about two o'clock in 

* Horatio King's Account, "Magazine of American History," Nov., 
1885. 

t Madison's "Memorandum," Works (Cong. Ed.), Ill, 423- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 333 

the afternoon he and Attorney- General Rush started for 
Washington, As he rode slowly back the stream of flying 
militiamen and civiHans poured by him and around him, 
and about three o'clock in the afternoon he reached the 
White House. Before six o'clock he crossed the Potomac 
in a boat, and taking a carriage on the Virginia shore, 
along with Jones, Rush and one or two others, went west- 
ward about ten miles and passed the night at a house a 
few miles above the Little Falls. The next morning, 
August 25, he joined his wife at the inn six miles farther 
away, and about twenty miles distant from where the 
British actually were. He remained here all day and 
part of the night, and was insulted by some of the fugi- 
tives, who thought him responsible for their misfortunes. 
In the dead of the night a report came that the enemy 
was approaching, and the President and his wife parted, 
he going to a little hovel deeper in the woods, where he 
spent the rest of the night. The next day, August 26, 
he crossed the river and went to Montgomery Court House 
in Maryland, and hearing that Winder had gone to Balti- 
more, followed him for ten miles to Brookville, where he 
passed the night. August 27, receiving word from Monroe 
that the British had evacuated Washington, he sent notes 
to his cabinet officers to join him there, and he himself 
reached the city about five o'clock that evening. The 
enemy's squadron was still battering the forts below Alex- 
andria, and his frigates could be seen off Alexandria until 
August 3 1 . The President found lodging with his sister- 
in-law, Mrs. Anna Cutts, in her house on F Street, a 
block away from the Treasury Department, and after 
staying there about a month moved into Col. John 
Tayloe's Octagon House, a handsome residence which 
the ingenious Thornton had designed. 

He had been absent from the city for three days. 
When he left he had instructed his cabinet to meet him 
at Fredericktown, Maryland, and had been unable to 
notify Armstrong of his change of plans, so Armstrong 
was not with him when he returned, and Winder was at 



334 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

Baltimore. In the emergency he instructed Monroe to 
assume charge of the War Department and the miHtary 
defenses. Throughout the catastrophe Monroe was the 
only one who had been of practical use to him. He was 
now the only one whom the military would obey, for they 
mutinously announced they would take no orders from 
Armstrong. 

That illstarred official returned to Washington at one 
o'clock August 29, and the same evening the President 
called upon him and told him the military had rebelled 
against him, and added that he himself was an object of 
suspicion. He suggested, therefore, that Armstrong 
permit some one else to remain in charge of the defenses 
of the city. Armstrong replied with indignation that he 
must have all his authority or none. Madison would 
not then accept his resignation, saying he did not wish to 
go so far, but it was agreed that Armstrong should leave 
the city the following morning, which he did, and from 
Baltimore resigned,* making public at the same time the 
circumstances which prompted him to do so. On Sep- 
tember 3, before his resignation had reached Washington, 
the President gave Monroe a commission as Secretary of 
War pro tempore, dating it August 31. September 25, 
Monroe demanded a permanent commission! and received 
it September 27. Madison made no pretense to military 
knowledge and put himself in the hands of the only person 
near him who had such knowledge. Armstrong con- 
tended that he had been forced out by intrigue in order 
that Monroe might have his place. It was true that those 
who complained most loudly of Armstrong wished Monroe 
to succeed him, but after the fall of Washington no power 
could have kept Armstrong at the head of the War Depart- 
ment, a fact which the President made clear to him at 
their interview. 

The President escaped with light censure for this 
supreme disaster of the war. His own sin was in trusting 

* Madison's Memorandum, Works (Cong. Ed.) Ill, 425. 
t "Monroe's Writings" (Hamilton) V, 293. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 335 

others to attend to their duties. A great deal of ridicule 
was visited upon him for his flight from the city, but the 
circumstances did not warrant it. From the beginning 
to the end of this liumiliating incident his conduct was 
dignified and showed no personal trepidation. He was 
not thinking of his safety, but of the disgrace which had 
come upon his country and his administration by the 
capture of the undefended capital. 

One point in which the conduct of the war was weakest 
he could, however, charge primarily to Congress. In 
181 1 Gallatin's report showed an excess of receipts over 
expenditures for the year before, but the ensuing year 
he estimated that there would be a deficiency of over 
$1,000,000. He recommended that a loan of $1,200,000 
be contracted and that taxes be increased. The latter 
alternative was refused, and at the end of October, 181 2, 
Gallatin reported that a loan of $20,000,000 would be 
necessary to meet the expenses of the year 181 3. The 
treasury was on the verge of collapse, but Congress left 
the tax bills untouched and authorized a loan of $16,000,- 
000 and an issue of $5,000,000 of treasury notes. April 
I, 1 8 13, the treasury was empty when John Jacob Astor 
came to its reHef with the aid of Stephen Girard and 
David Parish. Although the $16,000,000 was to be bor- 
rowed at seven per cent, for the first thirteen years and 
six per cent, thereafter, only about $4,000,000 of popular 
subscriptions were offered. A national bank as an 
agency to assist the government in borrowing was 
earnestly desired by Gallatin, and in 181 4 the Ways and 
Means Committee of the House reported a bill to incor- 
porate one with a capital of $30,000,000, but it came to 
nothing, and a loan of $25,000,000 and an issue of $5,000,- 
000 interest-bearing treasury notes were ordered, and the 
President was given authority to issue $5,000,000 addi- 
tional notes, if he could not borrow the full amount of the 
loan. 

In the midst of these complications Gallatin went 
abroad and Jones took his place temporarily, but after a 



336 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

service of ten months Jones informed Madison that he 
could not continue his double service, the labour of the 
Treasury Department being too exacting. Gallatin's 
service abroad was then made definite. Alexander J. 
Dallas, of Pennsylvania, whom the President wished to 
nominate as his successor, would have been rejected by 
the Senate as Madison ascertained, so he offered the place 
to Richard Rush, then Comptroller of the Treasury, but 
Rush declined. Finally, February 8, 1814, he sent in the 
name of George W. Campbell, a Senator from Tennessee, 
and he was commissioned the following day. He had 
been a consistent supporter of the administration, but he 
was possessed of no conspicuous characteristics to inspire 
belief that he could overcome a desperate financial situa- 
tion. In May, 18 14, he attempted to float a loan, and 
received offers for $13,000,000 on hard terms, and an 
additional offer of Jacob Barker, a private banker in New 
York, to take $5,000,000 of the bonds was accepted, 
although Barker's ability to carry out his contract was 
doubted. Barker afterwards declared that there was an 
understanding between him and Campbell that $300,000 
of the bonds were to be paid in London, the stock being 
sent by Campbell to the government bankers in that city 
to be sold, but that Campbell changed his mind and 
Barker's plans were embarrassed in consequence. Barker 
failed to keep his contract, and twenty-nine separate 
suits were afterwards brought against him by the United 
States.* 

On May 22, 18 14, Campbell reported to the President 
that the funds on hand would last two months longer. 
Astor, he said, proposed two methods for floating the loan, 
one being to negotiate in Europe through an agent, the 
other to make an arrangement with Astor and his friends, 
who, Campbell presumed, did the negotiating on their 
own account. He said then that he was apprehensive 
Barker would have difficulty in paying his installments. 
In July he attempted a second loan of $6,000,000, and 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 337 

could sell only $2,500,000 of bonds at eighty. As the ex- 
penses of the government must be met he suggested the 
issue of treasury notes. A month later Washington was 
sacked and the banks of Philadelphia and Baltimore 
suspended specie payments, and were soon followed by 
all the banks throughout the country, except in New 
England. Campbell's statement of national bankruptcy 
was his last message. He resigned, and Alexander J. 
Dallas succeeded him October 6, 18 14, the Senate having 
withdrawn its objection to him in view of the emergency. 
For 1815 the revenue was estimated at $18,200,000, not 
half enough for the running expenses of the Government, 
and there was $18,627,000 of outstanding treasury notes. 
March 3, 181 5, a loan to absorb these was authorized, but 
Dallas rejected the bids made on the ground that they were 
too low. Soon after he came into office, October 17, 
1 8 14, he wrote to Eppes, Chairman of the House Com- 
mittee on Ways and Means, recommending the establish- 
ment of a United States bank, and by a vote of sixty-six 
to forty the House resolved that such an assistance to 
the treasury ought to be created, but no agreement could 
be reached on any of the bills introduced, until at the last 
moment a bill drawn by Daniel Webster was carried. 
It authorized the creation of the bank, but without 
obHgation to lend to the government, and Madison 
vetoed it, chiefly for that reason. More tax bills were 
passed at this session and $10,000,000 of treasury notes 
were issued. At the next session a new bank bill was 
under discussion when the treaty of Ghent arrived and 
postponed discussion, but a year later, on January 8, 
1 816, Calhoiin reported a bill to incorporate the bank 
for twenty years with a capital of $35,000,000, and 
this bill became law April 10, 181 6. Hardly any of 
the Federalists supported it and hardly any of the 
Republicans opposed it. Henry Clay, who had voted 
against a similar bill in 1 8 1 1 , completely changed front, 
and James Madison, who had opposed the bill creating 
the first bank of the United States in 1791, put his name 



338 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

to the bill of 1816 and made it law. He had already 
stated his attitude on the subject in his veto message of 
January 30, 181 5. "Waiving the question of the con- 
stitutional authority of the Legislature," he said, "to 
establish an incorporated bank as being precluded in my 
judgment by repeated recognitions under varied circum- 
stances of the validity of such an institution in acts of the 
legislative, executive and judicial branches of the gov- 
ernment, accompanied by indications, in different modes, 
of a concurrence of the general will of the nation," he was 
now ready to approve a bank bill, as he regarded as 
settled the question of its constitutionality.* John 
Randolph attributed Madison's signing the bill to the 
weakness of old age, but Madison always insisted it was 
due to the necessities of the occasion. The chief opposi- 
tion to the bill had not come from strict constructionists, 
but from the state banks, which refused to cooperate with 
the treasury or to assist it. After the bank was author- 
ized Dallas wrote to Madison, August 31, 18 16, to con- 
gratulate him on the financial prospect. 

"The national bank," he said, "grows in the public 
confidence. I believe its immediate uses will be as great 
as was anticipated by its most strenuous advocates. 
Under a prudent and skilful director acting in concert 
with the government, it will restore the national cur- 
rency, and destroy the artificial differences of exchange. 
But I look with peculiar pleasure to the establishm.ent, 
as furnishing a machinery to frustrate the usurpations 
of the state banks, and to retrieve the constitutional 
powers of the Government over the coin and currency 
of the nation, "t 

When Dallas retired from the Treasury Department 
three months later, Madison wrote to Gallatin, who was 
serving as Minister to France, and offered him his old 
post again, but Gallatin preferred to remain abroad, and 
William H. Crawford was appointed. 

* "Messages and Papers of the Presidents," I, 555. 
t Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 339 

The record of the cabinet was singular. Robert Smith, 
the first Secretary of State, was a failure and was dis- 
missed. Eustis, the first Secretary of War, broke down 
in the face of emergency and was forced to resign, and his 
successor, John Armstrong, was sent precipitately away 
from Washington in 181 4. Paul Hamilton, the Secretary 
of the Navy, was forced out of office when Eustis was, and 
for the same reason. George W. Campbell, Madison's 
third Secretary of the Treasury, resigned because he could 
not cope with the difficulties of his position. Monroe's 
service at the head of the State Department was inter- 
rupted by four assignments to act as Secretary of 
War. Walter Jones served as Secretary of the Navy and 
of the Treasury for nearly a year. Dallas remained in the 
Treasury for only two years, during which time he also 
acted as Secretary of War for two weeks. William H. 
Crawford, who was appointed Secretary of War August i, 
1 81 5, served for a little more than a year when he was 
transferred to the Treasury Department. Jefferson's 
Secretaries of State, War, the Treasury and the Navy 
went through practically the whole of his two terms with 
him ; Adams changed the Secretaries of State, the Treas- 
ury and War once; Monroe completed his eight years of 
the Presidency with hardly a break in his cabinet. Madi- 
son's administration fell in more critical times than the 
administration of Adams, Jefferson or Monroe, but his 
task would have been an easier one and the credit of his 
administration would have been greater, if he had sur- 
rounded himself with a compact body of able men, de- 
voted to his interests and expert in their management of 
public affairs, instead of having strange faces about the 
cabinet table, and coadjutors who were inexperienced 
and even disloyal. In his long public career he had never, 
until he became President, had the duty of selecting and 
commanding men. His concern had been rather with 
public measures, and when he was called upon to choose 
the instruments for their execution he was too old to 
acquire the quality of choosing them well. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

THE GLOOMY FEDERALISTS 

As the war progressed, that Madison was m secret 
alHance with Napoleon was extensively believed. In 
writing to Col. David Humphreys, March 23, 1813, 
Madison expressed surprise that any one should believe so 
absurd a story, and pointed to his own and Jefferson's 
messages, and his recent instructions to Barlow, limiting 
his negotiations in France to the subjects of indemnity 
and commerce. "With such strong presumptions and 
decisive proofs before the public it is impossible," he 
said, "that a purpose in this government of allying itself 
with that of France can be seriously believed by any 
intelligent individual not in a temper to reject a witness 
even from the dead."* Those who believed this charge 
had during the diplomatic contest preceding the war 
generally sided with England, and, according to Henry 
Lee, did not believe that Madison wished to accommo- 
date matters with that country. The situation in Wash- 
ington was so uncertain and had been so prolonged that 
not even the Republicans themselves thought war was 
really coming. Many of them wrote to Madison and 
implored him not to enter into it, giving as one reason 
that it would injure his political fortunes. Governor 
John S. Barbour, his neighbour, asked him in strict con- 
fidence, March 30, 18 12, to tell him whether or not there 
was to be war. If it was really impending he wished to 
put Virginia in a state of defence ; if not, he did not wish 
to alarm the people by unnecessary preparations. El- 
bridge Gerry, then completing his term as Republican 
Governor of Massachusetts, wrote two weeks later (April 

* Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 560. 

340 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 341 

12), that he was doing his best to forestall the disloyal 
spirit in his State. He had appointed three division com- 
manders and three brigadiers of State troops who were 
firm friends of the national government. Others ap- 
pointed by him were of different politics, because he could 
not find competent Republicans, but they would do their 
duty, he thought, and their superior officers would con- 
trol them. J\Iay 19, he wrote that the strength of the 
opposition was increasing with delay and that war would 
be a check. "By war we shall be purified as by fire," 
he said. When war came his hopes were not realized. 
July 13, he reported that Governor Strong, his successor, 
was removing Republican militia officers and filling their 
places with P'ederalists. If the British attacked there 
was grave danger. The Republicans would be to blame if 
they stood "with folded arms to leave it in the power of 
such a disaffected executive to deliver up our fortresses to 
the enemy; to enable those who may be disposed to 
rebel to unite with our foes; to aid them in making a 
diversion of our western army and to subject the State to 
be overawed by a fear of traitors." 

St. George Tucker, Williamsburg, July 27, 181 2, gave 
Madison the Southern opinion of Massachusetts Federal- 
ists: "I am mortified to observe," he said, "the probable 
predominance of a faction in Boston whose designs have 
long been suspected by me, and whose present determina- 
tion seems to be either to rule or to dissolve the union." 
Mathew Carey, of Philadelphia, said that in his opinion 
(January, 18 12), the Federalist newspapers were to blame 
for the FederaHsts' attitude. "The mass of Federalists," 
he said, "are as good citizens as ever existed. They are, 
however, made tools of by men who have the very worst 
views. They have been led on step by step, through 
fraud and misrepresentation, till they have arrived at 
the verge of civil war." The Federalist papers were, 
in fact, distributed free in parts of New England, the con- 
sequence being that the people saw no others, being un- 
willing to pay for them. But according to Carey there 



342 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

was yet another reason for a disunion spirit. It was 
fostered, he said, by men who hoped to attain higher 
offices in the prospective confederacies than they could 
attain under the union.* These men had, however, been 
busy with their schemes for many years. In 1804 Tim- 
othy Pickering deliberately proposed a Northern secession 
to his friends of the Essex Junto. They decided against 
it as impracticable, and not a good remedy for existing 
evils, but they made no pretense of attachment to the 
union.! 

Pickering, Griswold and others plotted with Anthony 
Merry, the British minister, as early as January, 1804, 
for dismemberment, and, of course. Merry reported the 
facts to his government. J His successors had similar 
reports to make, and the French minister sent information 
of the spirit of disunion to Paris. These reports had their 
effect in the conduct observed towards the United States 
by England and France. Turreau, the predecessor of 
Serurier, reported to his government, March 19, 1809: 
"I had informed your Excellency of the disunion pro- 
jects shown by some of the Northern States," and a month 
later (April 20) he said the separation of New England 
was openly talked of, and that it was to be carried out 
under British protection.^ 

That such a scheme was in contemplation Madison be- 
lieved and endeavoured to prove in 1 8 1 1 by the purchase 
for $50,000 of the papers of John Henry, formerly secret 
agent in the United States of Sir James Craig, Governor 
of Canada. These papers did not, however, establish a 
conspiracy. They showed the discontent in New Eng- 
land and that the British government had maintained 
a secret agent there, but the names of those with whom 
he had had dealings were lacking and no overt acts against 
the government were proved. One object of the pur- 

* Dept. of state MSS. 

f Henry Adams, II, 160-161. 

t Id. 11, 3gi. 

^ Henry Adams, V, 34, 36. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 343 

chase, ]\Ionroe told the French minister, was to arouse 
the war spirit of the country, but the effect in this di- 
rection was insignificant, and the feeling against the 
Federalists needed no increasing. 

When the war measures came before Congress the 
leading Federalists voted for them. Some of them told 
the British minister, with whom they were on friendly and 
confidential terms, that they hoped for a short war which 
would throw out of power the Madison administration. 
On February i two of them called on Foster and gave 
advice as to the best course for his country to follow. 
Under no circumstances, they said, should England ac- 
cede to Madison's demands. A short war would be bene- 
ficial to England, "In short," reported Foster to his 
government, "they seemed to think that Great Britain 
could by management bring the United States into any 
connection with her that she pleased."* 

Secretary Eustis reported in 181 2 a conversation with 
one John Wait, "a gloomy Federalist from Boston." 

" 'Then, Mr. Wait, they will separate from the tmion.' 

" 'O no, sir, they cling to the union.' 

" 'But they have said it and will do it.' 

" 'No, unless they see commerce entirely destroyed 
and themselves ruined — unless the laws are unconstitu- 
tional.' 

" 'And they, the minority, are to be the judges !' " 

Here the conversation was interrupted. Eustis said 
Mr. Wait was a perfect representative of the Massachu- 
setts Federalists.! 

When Erskine's agreement was made the Federalists 
were reconciled, as peace with Great Britain seemed as- 
sured, and John Henry went home because there was 
nothing for him to do. When the short-lived supposed 
security terminated the Federalist determination to find 
an escape from Virginia supremacy revived with vigour. 
"Nearly all the New Englanders," says Henry xldams, "on 

* Henry Adams, VI, 172, et seq. 
t Dept. of State MSS. 



344 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

the contrary, looked to ultimate disunion as a con- 
servative necessity." 

After the war began Madison was informed that in Ver- 
mont the success of American arms was necessary to save 
the State from passing over to the control of the Federal- 
ists and that a disaster to American arms would cause 
disaffection to the union.* 

Governor Strong of Massachusetts, on June 26, pro- 
claimed a public fast for a war declared "against the na- 
tion from which we are descended, and which for many 
generations has been the bulwark of the reUgion we pro- 
fess." The Supreme Court of the State declared that the 
determination of the question whether the constitutional 
exigency existed for calling the State militia into the 
service of the United States belonged to the Governor 
and not to the President. When Congress authorized a 
loan of $11,000,000 from New England, where there was 
the greatest amount of capital, only $1,000,000 was 
subscribed. The agents for the loan in Boston were 
obliged to advertise that the names of subscribers would 
not be made public, and the Federahst papers advised 
all people against taking up the government's bonds. t 

In Providence, when the news came that war had been 
declared, the bells of the meeting houses tolled as for a 
funeral. Many of the shops were closed and flags were 
flown at half mast. Christopher Ellery, who reported 
these facts to Madison, said that many FederaHsts hoped 
to hear of British success in the war. J 

In Connecticut, Republicans said the legislature was a 
treasonable body, but that one-third of the citizens would 
defend the government. March 13, 1809, the Repub- 
licans at Litchfield passed resolutions which show the 
opinion in which the Federalists were held : 

"When, too," they said, "combining with these impend- 
ing dangers from abroad, we find among our own citizens, 

*Id. 

t Randall's "Life of Jefferson," III, 388. 

X Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 345 

in our own councils, men so miserably misled and so 
unhappily forgetful of the rights and duties of Americans 
as to hail, in unison with the multiplied agents and in- 
cendiaries of a foreign court, who have found a resting 
place in the bosom of our country, that nation as a pro- 
tecting shield which above all others has outraged the 
rights of mankind," etc.* 

Before the war began the prospects in New England 
were painted in dark colours by a number of well- 
informed people. Benjamin Stoddart said, January 18, 
1809: "To me it is and always has been as clear as 
noonday's sun that further perseverance in this embargo 
would produce open and effectual resistance to the laws 
of the union, "t 

Undoubtedly the embargo harmed the political for- 
tunes of the Republicans. In New York it threw out of 
employment seamen, shipwrights, rope and sailmakers, 
riggers, calkcrs, draymen and 'longshoremen. It was 
computed by Morgan Lewis that of seamen there were 
in New York City nearly 4,000, and they were an active 
force in politics against the administration and proposed 
to elect De Witt Clinton to the presidency. 

Robert R. Livingston said the reports of distress from 
the embargo were much exaggerated. The check to 
commerce had come at a most opportune moment. 
"We have," he wrote, "stopped full-handed; we have a 
capital [with] which we can long remain unemployed. 
It must then find that occupation in manufactures which 
it can no longer find in commerce, and when once in- 
vested in them it cannot be easily withdrawn, even on the 
return of peace . . 

"I hear with contempt the exaggerated accounts of the 
distress of the country. I have just traveled through 
that in which it was said chiefly to exist. I have been 
to Boston by the way of Hartford. I returned by another 

* Id. 

t Reported to Madison by Commodore Thomas Tingey, Dept. of 
State MSS. 



346 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

route. I have also been to almost the northeastern town 
of Vermont, traveling thro Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire. Never have I, at any time, witnessed more 
ease and comfort than I have seen in the whole of this 
extensive journey."* 

New England was more prosperous than any other part 
of the country. John Lowell said in 1814 that the banks 
were at their wits' end to lend their capital, A few 
made secret loans to the United States, but others 
bought British government bills at more than twenty per 
cent, discount rather than assist their own government. 

Even when war was in progress officers in the army com- 
plained that military reverses were pointed to by Federal- 
ist officers as an evidence of Republican incapacity, and 
that they constantly criticized Madison and his whole 
administration. It became a question whether they 
ought not to be removed for disloyalty. 

There were mass meetings, protests and pulpit oratory 
against the war, and some people thought it their duty 
to tell Madison how much they disapproved of it. A 
man eighty-nine years old wrote from Woodstock, 
Conn., November 23, 18 14, that it was a "cruel, unneces- 
sary, unjust war, esteemed so by thousands of the good 
people of the United States, and the expenses of it too 
heavy and grievous to be borne. "f 

Josiah Quincy was one of the most earnest of the op- 
ponents. It was he who in 181 1, when the bill to admit 
Louisiana into the union of the States was pending in the 
House, said: 

"If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is 
virtually a dissolution of this Union ; that it will free the 
States from their moral obligation; and, as it will be the 
right, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare 
for a separation — amicably if they can, violently if they 
must." 

When prospects of peace first appeared he wrote to 

* Dept. of State MSS. 
t Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 347 

Senator Outerbridge Horsey of Delaware, June 18, 1813: 
"In relation to the Russian mediation, I have but little 
faith , . . However, I am of those who are willing 
to wait for the disclosures of time. And though I be- 
lieve little in peace, yet should it come I am perfectly con- 
vinced that it is owing to other circumstances than any- 
thing contained in the authorities of our cabinet. Had 
I less belief that Mr. Bayard desired the appointment, I 
should have more confidence in his judgment concerning 
the event . . . And in the meanwhile French suc- 
cesses or French defeats will settle the vibrations of our 
policy, unless the refusal of supply or despair of loans 
should make a quicker result inevitable."* 

Although the Federalists did not feel towards Madi- 
son the same degree of personal animosity which they had 
felt towards Jefferson, they said in effect, "as Mr. Madison 
has declared war, let ]\Ir. Madison carry it on," and many 
of them indulged in robust abuse of him,t denouncing 
him as a "miscreant," etc. They professed to believe 
that he should resign. The Boston Gazette said: "Do 
the Democrats think that a Madison, whose highest am- 
bition is to balance a sentence and round a period, that 
the rhetorician who once glimmered in harmless debate 
in times of peace, can now balance the conflicting parties 
of our country, or direct the energies of a powerful na- 
tion?" The Baltimore Federal Gazette published a letter 
from Washington dated January 15, 181 5, saying Madison 
would be called on to resign, and the Federal Republican 
said there was no hope of preserving the Union unless he 
resigned or was removed from office. This was just be- 
fore the battle of New Orleans, and before the news 
of the Treaty of Ghent had been received. J Naturally 
after those events no further suggestions of Madison's 
resignation were made. 

* Family papers of the late Outerbridge Horsey, Esq., of Need- 
wood, Md. 

t Randall's "Life of Jefiferson," III, 370, n. 

J Randall's "Life of Jefferson," III, 416, et seq. 



348 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

The discontent and disloyalty of the Federalists found 
their supreme culmination in the Hartford Convention 
of 1 814. Randall, in his life of Jefferson, gives a fair esti- 
mate of those who attended and favoured it : 

"They were rich men, indignant at the stoppage of their 
gains by commercial restrictions and war — colonists 
in spirit, who like Talmadge thought a war against 
England was a war against religion and order — aristoc- 
crats dreaming of the restoration of those palmy days 
when political wisdom and rights sprung from hair-powder 
and shoe-buckles — sectional fanatics, unwilling to have 
the 'moral and religious' people of New England form 
part of any political compact wh'ch they could not con- 
trol — politicians who were keen consolidationists when 
they were the Ins at Washington, but who regarded their 
own banishment from the theatre of national politics as a 
procedure which demanded the formation of a 'confed- 
eracy' w^hich would better appreciate their capacities for 
government. But even among the latter class, by far 
the most dangerous one, ran the conservatism of personal 
character, of caste, and of the cautious New England 
mind. There was not among the members one hopeless 
enough to be desperate, depraved enough to delight in 
blood and disorder, or warm enough in temperament to 
become a dangerous enthusiast."* 

The discontented leaders undoubtedly looked forward 
to the formation of a New England confederacy. Picker- 
ing wTote July 4, 1813: "On the contrary, I believe an 
immediate separation would be a blessing to the 'good 
old thirteen states,' as John Randolph once called them." 
John Lowell, who was the maker of literature to spread 
Pickering's plans, pubHshed a pamphlet this year en- 
titled "Thoughts in Answer to a Question Respecting 
the Division of the States; by a Massachusetts Farmer." 
The year before, July 21, 181 2, a public meeting in Essex 
County adopted resolutions proposed by Pickering, 
favouring a State convention to concert measures in 

* Randall's "Jefferson," III, 418. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 349 

opposition to the administration, but it failed of accept- 
ance in Boston because of the intrepid opposition of 
Samuel Dexter, himself a Federalist, but one of a con- 
siderable number who refused to follow the popular tide 
into the gulf of disloyalty * 

In the General Court of Massachusetts, the committee 
having imder consideration the resolutions of the coimty 
meetings reported, February 18, 18 14: 

"Whenever the national compact is violated and the 
citizens of this State are oppressed by cruel and un- 
authorized laws, the Legislature is bound to interpose its 
power and wrest from the oppressor his victim. 

"This is the spirit of our Union, and thus it has been 
explained by the very man who now sets at defiance all 
the principles of his early political life." Accordingly, 
they proposed a convention of the States to amend the 
Constitution. "This," they said, "was the mode pro- 
posed by Mr. Madison [in The Federalist, No. 46] in 
answer to objections made as to the tendency of the 
general government to usurp that of the States." 

A convention of the States was, of course, not an 
objectionable suggestion, but nothing that :Madison had 
ever said could be so twisted as to sanction the first sen- 
tence of the report. The Legislature did not adopt the 
report, but referred the whole question to the next Legis- 
lature in order that the sense of the people might in the 
meantime be taken on it. The action of the ensuing 
Legislature must, therefore, be accepted as a correct index 
of public opinion in Massachusetts. After Washington 
had been sacked by the British, when the treasury was in 
desperate straits for funds and New England beHeved 
that the collapse of the national government was impend- 
ing, the Alassachusetts Legislature pronounced, October 
8, 1814, in favour of seizing the Federal revenue collected 
in the State and using it for the State's defense, and 
sanctioned the holding of a convention of New England 
States. The vote was three to one in favour of the con- 

* Henry Adams, VIII, 4, ^t seq. 



350 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

vention, and after protesting against the action taken 
the minority withdrew. October 19, twelve delegates to 
the convention were chosen. The Connecticut Legisla- 
ture fell into line and named Hartford as the place and 
December 15 as the time for a meeting to devise "such 
measures for the safety and welfare of these States as may 
consist with our obligations as members of the National 
Union," — this language being intended to draw a dis- 
tinction between the Union and the Constitution. The 
Legislature of Rhode Island also appointed delegates, and 
these were the only three States giving official sanction 
to the convention. Vermont declined to name delegates, 
but when the meeting took place one county sent a mem- 
ber. New Hampshire had a Republican Executive 
Council which stood in the way of the Legislature's desire 
to name delegates, but two were sent by popular meet- 
ings. After the convention had been decided upon, but 
before it was held, the elections to the national House of 
Representatives took place, resulting in the return of 
thirty-nine Federalists and two Republicans from New 
England. Popular approval of Federalism had in- 
creased, for in the preceding Congress there had been 
thirty Federalists and eleven Republicans. 

The Hartford convention was really composed of the 
less radical element of the FederaHsts, and could have 
gone much further than it did with the certainty of re- 
ceiving popular support. It comprised only twenty-six 
members in all, and George Cabot of Massachusetts, who 
was chosen president, was determined to restrain it 
within temperate bounds. Harrison Gray Otis, it is pre- 
sumed, drew up the report which it adopted, and which 
was the only result of its labours given to the public, the 
sessions and proceedings being guarded with inviolate 
secrecy. The report said that the time for a change was 
at hand ; that a severance of the union of the States could 
not be justified, especially in time of war, except upon 
grounds of absolute necessity ; but that it was the duty of 
the State to interpose its authority to protect its citizens 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 351 

from infractions of the Constitution by the general gov- 
ernment. Therefore, State laws should be passed to pro- 
tect the militia and citizens from conscription or drafts 
by the Federal government, and an arrangement should 
be made authorizing the States to assume their own 
defense and retain for the purpose a part of the Federal 
taxes collected in their borders. Until the result of an 
application for this purpose to the general government 
should be made known, it was recommended that there 
be no further proceedings, but if the application failed 
another convention was to be called. The report was 
approved by the Massachusetts and Connecticut Legis- 
latures and delegates were appointed, with Harrison Gray 
Otis at their head, to proceed to Washington to ask 
the contemplated arrangements. 

October 17 William Wirt called on j\Iadison at the 
Octagon House before the Hartford convention had been 
determined upon. He described him as looking shattered 
and heartbroken, his mind and heart full of the New Eng- 
land sedition.* The fact that the capital had been 
wrecked by a foreign foe seemed not to concern him so 
much as the solicitude he felt for the integrity of the frame 
of government he had done so much to erect. A month 
later (November 25) he wrote to Wilson Cary Nicholas: 

"You are not mistaken in viewing the conduct of the 
Eastern States as the source of our greatest difficulties in 
carrying on the war ; as it certainly is the greatest if not 
the sole inducement to the enemy to persevere in it. The 
greater part of the people in that quarter have been brought 
by their leaders, aided by their priests, under a delusion 
scarcely exceeded by that recorded in the period of witch- 
craft ; and the leaders themselves are becoming daily more 
desperate in the use they make of it. Their object is 
power. If they could obtain it by menaces, their efforts 
would stop there. These failing, they are ready to go 
every length for which they can train their followers. 
Without foreign cooperation, revolt and separation will 

* Kennedy's "Life of Wirt," I, 339, Qu. Henry Adams, VIII, 231. 



352 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

hardly be risked; and what the effect of so profligate an 
experiment would be, first, on misguided partisans, and 
next on those remaining faithful to the nation, who are 
respectable for their consistency and even for their num- 
bers, is for conjecture only."* 

After the convention had done its work, Monroe spoke 
the administration's views when he said: 

"They cannot dismember the Union, or league with 
the enemy, as I trust and believe, & they cannot now 
retreat without disgrace. I hope that the leaders will soon 
take rank in society with Burr& others of that stamp, "f 

But no such serious ignominy was theirs. The com- 
missioners regularly named by their States in accordance 
with the recommendation of the convention, started for 
Washington about the time the battle of New Orleans 
was fought, and the news of that battle and of the treaty 
of peace reached Washington in advance of their coming. 
In the universal rejoicing their existence was almost 
forgotten, and they did not invite public notice, but 
quietly went home without presenting themselves to 
the President. The New York National Advocate adver- 
tised for tidings of some unfortunate gentlemen who had 
started for Washington from the Hartford convention, 
but who had missed their way and it was feared had been 
drowned, J and other newspapers noticed them with 
similar raillery. 

Thus terminated the only movement looking to a dis- 
memberment of the Union made by a combination of 
States before the Southern secession movement. The 
President knew of its existence from the beginning, but he 
never believed it would result in disunion. He did noth- 
ing to stop it, feeling himself powerless, and being, more- 
over, unwilling to abandon the restrictions of trade for 
political purposes, which was a part of his system, and 
which brought the discontent in New England to a crisis. 

* Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 593, 594. 

t Writings of Monroe (Hamilton) V, 306. 

X Randall's "Life of Jefferson," III, 417. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

PEACE 

While the charge of the Federalists that Madison was 
m league with France in making war against Great Britain 
was absurd, his relations to that power were nevertheless 
peculiar, and required at least an appearance of belief in 
her good faith towards the United States ; and the conse- 
quence of this necessity soon put him in an extraordinary 
position. 

The immediate basis for his demand for the repeal of 
the British orders in council was that the French decrees 
had been repealed. He was assured of their repeal again 
and again, yet there was evidence before his eyes that 
they were being enforced against American shipping. 
In i8i I Joel Barlow was sent as Minister to France. He 
had lived there for many years and his personal familiarity 
with French official life made him hope to unravel the 
entanglement into which the two countries had become 
involved ; but no one could be said to meet Napoleon on 
even terms in a diplomatic contest, because his methods 
were without example and his moves could not be antici- 
pated even by the imagination. When, in May, 1812, 
Barlow asked for the hundredth time for proof of the re- 
peal of the decrees, the Due de Bassano, Minister for For- 
eign Affairs, put into his hands an imperial decree dated 
April 28, i8ii, declaring the Berlin decree non-existent 
against American vessels after November i, 1810. No 
one had ever seen this paper before, for the very good 
reason that it had only been written and signed a few 
days before Barlow saw it. What could Madison do in 
the face of such methods? Simultaneously with the 
production of this bogus decree came reports of the 

353 



354 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

most reckless enforcement of the decree it purported to 
repeal, and Barlow was instructed again to demand in- 
demnity. The reply of France was merely to invent 
tricks for delay. Bassano had followed Napoleon on his 
way into Russia as far as Wilna, and he requested Barlow 
to come to him for further negotiation. Being of an ad- 
venturous turn, Barlow left Paris at the end of October 
and arrived at Wilna November i8, when Napoleon 
was in full retreat from Moscow. He abandoned his 
army December 5, and started for Paris, and the court 
at Wilna disbanded. On the way back to Paris Barlow 
contracted inflammation of the lungs from exposure and 
died at the village of Zarnovitch, near Cracow, in 
Poland, December 24, 181 2. 

The false decree of April, 181 1, purported to have been 
issued because of Madison's proclamation of non-inter- 
course with Great Britain, and the basis of the non-inter- 
course proclamation dated November 2, 18 10, had been 
that the Berlin decree was repealed. The President was 
thus put in a false position, and his indignation was in- 
tense. The conduct of the French government would, he 
said, be " an everlasting reproach to it. " If he could only 
get through his war with England he would be able to deal 
with France. Then, he said, " the full tide of indignation 
with which the public mind here is boiling will be directed 
against France, if not obviated by a due reparation of her 
wrongs. War will be called for by the nation tma voce. "* 
He instructed Barlow to be prepared to retire from his 
mission on sudden notice. Yet the victory of Russia and 
England over Napoleon was likely to affect America un- 
favourably, as England would be unlikely to listen to 
American demands. The situation resolved itself into 
this: Napoleon's supremacy was necessary to the Ameri- 
can policy against England, while it steadily tended to a 
break between America and France. 

Fortunately there was one country whose interest 
was on the American side in her war with Great Britain. 

*To Barlow, August 11, 1S14; Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 540, 541. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 355 

Russia herself feared England only less than she did 
France and foresaw in British triumph over America in- 
creasing difficulties for herself. The friendship of the 
Czar Alexander for America was partly a personal senti- 
ment, but his offer of mediation between England and 
America, made in March, 1813, was, as Madison said, 
"with the collateral view, there is reason to believe, of de- 
riving advantage from the neutral interference with Brit- 
ish monopoly in the trade with her."* "We are en- 
couraged," he said in another letter, April 2, 1813, "by 
the known friendship of the Emperor Alexander to this 
country ; and by the probability that the greater affinity 
between the Baltic and American ideas of maritime law 
than between those of the former and of Great Britain, 
will render his interposition as favourable as will be con- 
sistent with the character assumed by him. "f 

Negotiations for the Russian mediation had begun as 
early as September, 181 2, through the American Envoy, 
John Quincy Adams. The offer reached Washington 
March 8, and was accepted at once, although it was 
not known whether Great Britain would agree. It was 
decided to name two additional Envoys to be asso- 
ciated with Adams in the negotiations, and to help in 
uniting the country. James A. Bayard, a Federalist, was 
named as one of them. Gallatin, at his own request, 
was named as the other. There was precedent for the 
employment on a foreign mission of one in the 
domestic service, as Chief Justice Jay had served as 
Minister to England and Chief Justice Ellsworth as 
Minister to France. 

Before Gallatin and Bayard arrived in St. Petersburg, 
July 21, 1813, it was known to the Russian government 
that Great Britain had declined to accept Russian media- 
tion, but the refusal was not accepted as final and the 
Envoys were kept in idleness awaiting developments. 
The British government preferred direct negotiation to 

* To Jefferson, March lo, 1813; Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 559. 
t To John Nicholas; Works (Cong. Ed.) II, 563. 



356 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

the association of a third party whose sympathies were 
not with her, and November 4, 1813, Lord Castlereagh 
wrote to Monroe proposing the reopening of negotia- 
tions. Gallatin and Bayard were accordingly authorized 
to go to London. 

There the war was as unpopular in the beginning as it 
was in America. England had never supposed the United 
States would fight, and public opinion was unprepared 
to support the unexpected war. Spencer Percival, the 
Prime Minister, was assassinated May 11, 181 2, after 
Madison's preliminary war message had gone in to Con- 
gress, and Percival' s successor. Lord Liverpool, suspended 
the obnoxious orders in council June 17, the day before 
Congress declared war. This suspension had been brought 
about by the evident approach of war, and was the first 
success scored by the United States. 

The letter of Lord Castlereagh to Monroe proposed 
Gothenburg as a proper place for negotiating, and on 
January 14 the President nominated as United States 
Commissioners Adams, Bayard, Henry Clay and Jonathan 
Russell. A few weeks later, February 8, he nominated 
Gallatin, simultaneously filling Gallatin's place as Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, and thus compelling the con- 
firmation which had been refused before on the ground 
that Gallatin could not properly hold a foreign mission 
and be Secretary of the Treasury at the same time. The 
commission was so constituted as to give each section 
of the country a representative in hopes of having united 
acquiescence in their action. 

But while commissioners had been appointed there was 
no armistice, and the war went on, Gallatin and Bayard 
remaining in London till June 21. In the spring Clay came 
over with the commissioners' instructions, he being the only 
member of the commission not already in Europe, and the 
place of meeting was changed from Gothenburg to Ghent, 
the latter being a more convenient place. The British 
commissioners chosen to meet those of the United States 
were Lord Gambler, Henry Goulburn and William Adams. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 357 

None of them enjoyed a wide reputation, and in ability 
none was in the same class with the Americans. Both 
commissions were armed with instructions to adhere to 
which meant the failure of the negotiations. The Ameri-- 
cans were ordered to insist upon an abandonment by 
Great Britain of impressment. "If this encroachment of 
Great Britain is not provided against," said Monroe, "the 
United States have appealed to arms in vain. If your 
efforts to accomplish it should fail, all further negotiations 
will cease, and you will return home without delay." 

The British commissioners, on the other hand, were 
to offer the state of possession as the basis of the territorial 
arrangement to revive peace. This would have meant 
the loss to the United States of half of Maine, the northern 
part of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, and 
other points. The American instructions included a 
demand for "the upper parts and even the whole of 
Canada," and arrangements about rights of blockade, 
contraband of war, the maritime rights of neutrals, and 
fishery rights As early as February 14, 18 14, William 
H. Crawford, whose knowledge of popular wishes in the 
United States was exceptionally good, told Madison 
that any peace which did not include the cession to the 
United States of Upper Canada would be unfavourably 
received by the administration's friends in the interior 
and western parts of the country, and even on the 
seaboard the people would not be satisfied with less.* 

But the extravagant position assumed by each power 
underwent a change as the negotiations progressed. The 
most fundamental modification was that in the instruc- 
tion of June 2 7 to the American commissioners, author- 
izing them to abandon the impressment question as a 
sine qua non of acceptance of a treaty. The reasons 
given were simple. Owing to the peace in Europe Great 
Britain might now throw her whole force against America, 
and according to Bayard and Gallatin's despatches from 
London the month before, "the popular exultation, in 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



358 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

consequence of the success against France," demanded 
strong prosecution of the war against the United States.* 
Moreover, as long as the peace in Europe lasted it was 
not probable that the right of impressment would be 
claimed. This reasoning applied equally to the question 
of blockade and neutral rights. While the negotiations 
were progressing news was received of the failure of the 
British expedition against Baltimore, of Drummond's 
defeat at Fort Erie, and of Prevost's retreat from Northern 
New York. The uti posseditis became in consequence a 
poor basis for claim of territory on the part of the British 
government, and was abandoned for the status quo ante 
helium. 

The meetings of the two commissions began August 8, 
at the Hotel des Pays Bas, and afterwards were held 
alternately at the British and American commissioners' 
residences, being finally signed, December 28, at the 
house of the American commissioners, at the corner of the 
Rue de Champs and Rue Toulons.f 

The original antagonistic conditions upon which peace 
could be arranged having been withdrawn by the govern- 
ments of both countries, there remained nothing for the 
commissioners to do but to draw up a treaty agreeing to the 
one thing that both countries insisted upon having, and 
peace was really the only thing arranged for in the treaty. 
It comprised eleven articles. They provided for restora- 
tion on either side of territory conquered during the war ; 
return of all property, records and slaves taken; the 
mutual surrender of prisoners of war; joint commissions 
to be appointed to decide upon boundaries and disputed 
ownership of islands in Passamaquoddy Bay. Neither 
impressments, nor blockades, nor violations of neutral 
rights were even hinted at, but with peace in Europe 
none of these things existed. The misfortunes of the 
United States had arisen from the measures of France 
and England against one another. Now that these 

* Monroe's Instructions, Monroe's Writings (Hamilton) V, 371. 
t "Magazine of American History," November, i888. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 359 

measures were withdrawn the United States was fighting 
for abstract principles, and not against actual oppressions. 
She could well afford to leave the former to a future set- 
tlement. To continue the struggle with her own people 
disunited and dissatisfied and England free to hurl its 
undivided power on her shores, would have been an act of 
madness. 

Peace having been declared, congratulatory addresses 
poured in upon the President and he was given credit for 
closing the war with honour. So long had the people been 
distracted with contention and strife that from sheer ex- 
haustion they became amiable. A great wave of pros- 
perity and general contentment swept over the land. 
The Federalists were deserted, dwindled to a little band 
of men who were out of joint with the times, and soon to 
be called a Federalist became an opprobrious epithet. 
And in the midst of this sunshine and good-humour, 
James Madison retired from public life. His shortcom- 
ings as President were for the time forgotten, and in the 
calm of the closing months of his administration the people 
saw again the man of blameless life, the well-balanced 
scholar and the conservative statesman whom they had 
elected to the Presidency eight years before. 

In his inaugural address he had laid down the principles 
which were to govern his administration : 

"To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all 
nations having correspondent dispositions; to maintain 
sincere neutrality towards belligerent nations; to prefer 
in all cases amicable discussion and reasonable accom- 
modation of differences to a decision of them by an appeal 
to arms; to foster a spirit of independence too just to 
invade the rights of others, too proud to surrender our 
own." No one could truthfully say he had not lived up 
to this declaration, for in spite of his persistence in the 
belief that commercial retaliation was a good instrument 
to use against unfriendly nations, he never pretended that 
by this or any other means yet discovered could war be 



36o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

eliminated as a last resort of a nation whose rights were 
persistently trampled upon. 

"To support the Constitution, which is the cement of 
the Union, as well in its limitations as in its authorities ; 
to respect the rights and authorities reserved to the 
States and to the people as equally incorporated with 
and essential to the success of the general system." The 
bank bill intrenched upon the limitations of the constitu- 
tion, according to his doctrine, but he signed it, because 
he believed it to be a necessity, and because he regarded 
the constitutional question involved as having been set- 
tled against him by the action of the three branches of 
the government. His last message to Congress (March 
3, 1 817) was, however, a veto of the bill "for constructing 
roads and canals, and improving the navigation of water- 
courses, in order to facilitate, promote and give security 
to internal commerce among the several States." The 
powers of Congress were, he said, specified and enu- 
merated in the constitution and did not include a right 
to appropriate money for internal improvements. The 
general defense and general welfare clause could not be 
stretched to cover such schemes, excellent as they were 
in themselves.* 

"To avoid the slightest interference with the rights of 
conscience or the functions of religion, so wisely exempted 
from civil jurisdiction." On February 21, 181 1, he 
vetoed an act of Congress "Incorporating the Protestant 
Episcopal Church in the town of Alexandria, in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia," because it "exceeded the rightful 
authority to which governments are limited by the essen- 
tial distinction between civil rights and religious func- 
tions," and violated the article of the Constitution which 
declares that "Congress shall make no law respecting a 
religious establishment." "The Bih," he said, "vests 
in the said incorporated church an authority to provide 
for the support of the poor and the education of poor 
children of the same, an authority which, being altogether 

* "Messages and Papers of the Presidents," I, 584. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 361 

superfluous if the provision is to be made the result of 
pious charity, would be a precedent for giving to religious 
societies as such a legal agency in carrying into effect a 
public and civil duty." February 28, 181 1, he vetoed a 
bill for the relief of certain individuals and the Baptist 
Church at Salem Meeting House in Mississippi Territory, 
" because the bill in reserving a certain parcel of land of the 
United States for the use of said Baptist Church com- 
prises a principle and precedent for the appropriation of 
funds of the United States for the use and support of 
religious societies" contrary to the Constitution.* 

"To liberate the public resources by an honourable 
discharge of the public debts ; to keep within the requisite 
limits a standing military force, always remembering that 
an armed and trained militia is the firmest bulwark of 
republics— that without standing armies their liberty 
can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe." This 
expressed an aspiration which war had dashed, but in his 
last annual message he was able to announce that the 
receipts of the treasury exceeded the expenditures by 
about nine million dollars, and that there could be an 
early extinction of the debt. 

"To promote by authorized means improvements 
friendly to agriculture, to manufactures, and to external 
as well as internal commerce ; to favor in like manner the 
advancement of science and the diffusion of information 
as the best aliment to true liberty." He saw the manu- 
factures of the country given an impulse by the non- 
intercourse laws which they could not have acquired in 
fifty years of natural development, and he approved in 
181 6 a more thoroughly protective tariff bill than had 
yet been enacted. But a national university so much 
desired by him and others no steps were taken to estab- 
lish, although in his last message he renewed his recom- 
mendation for one. 

"To carry on the benevolent plans which have been 
so meritoriously applied to the conversion of our aborig- 

* "Messages and Papers of the Presidents," I, 490. 



o 



62 LIFE OF JA^IES ]^L\DISOX 



inal neighboiirs from the degradation and wretchedness of 
savage life to a participation of the improvements which 
the human mind and manners are susceptible in a ci\"i- 
lized state." This was a creditable wish, but the civiliza- 
tion of the Indians was a task beyond his powers. 

His purposes, as he an n ounced them when he was inaug- 
urated, were thus not fully accomplished, but as nearly 
realized as he could have reasonablv expected they would 
be. 

In his last annual message Qlarch 3, 181 6) he spoke 
his words of farewell with the same modesty and absence 
of vainglory which always distinguished him. 

"The period of my retiring from the public service 
being at little distance," he said, "I shall find no occasion 
more proper than the present for expressing to my fellow- 
citizens my deep sense of the continued confidence and 
kind support which I have received from them. My 
grateful recollection of these distinguished marks of their 
favourable regard can never cease, and with the conscious- 
ness that if I have not ser\-ed my coimtry with greater 
ability I have ser\'ed it with a sincere devotion, will ac- 
company me as a source of unfailing gratification. 

"Happily, I shall carry with me from the public theatre 
other sources which those who love their country most 
win best appreciate. I shaU behold it blessed with 
tranquillity and prosperity at home and with peace and 
respect abroad. I can indulge the proud reflection that 
the American people have reached in safety and success 
their fortieth year as an independent nation; that for 
nearly an entire generation they have had experience of 
their present Constitution, the offspring of their undis- 
turbed deliberations and of their free choice; that they 
have fotmd it to bear the trials of adverse as well as 
prosperous circumstances ; to contain in its combination 
of the federal and elective principles a reconcilement of 
public strength and individual hberty, of national power 
for the defense of national rights with a security against 
wars of injustice, of ambition, and of vainglory in the 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 363 

fundamental provision which subjects all questions of 
war to the will of the nation itself, which is to pay its 
costs and feel its calamities. Nor is it less a peculiar 
felicity of this Constitution, so dear to us all, that it is 
found to be so capable without losing its vital energies of 
expanding itself over a spacious territory with the increase 
and expansion of the community for whose benefit it was 
established. 

"And may I not be allowed to add to this gratifying 
spectacle that I shall read in the character of the American 
people . . , sure presages that the destined career of 
my country will exhibit a government pursuing the pub- 
lic good as its sole object ; . . . a government which 
avoids intrusions on the internal repose of other nations, 
and repels them from its own; . . , and which, 
while it refines its domestic code from every ingredient 
not congenial with the precepts of an enlightened age and 
the sentiments of a virtuous people, seeks by appeals to 
reason and by its liberal examples to infuse into the law 
which governs the civilized world a spirit which may 
diminish the frequency or circumscribe the calamities of 
war, and meliorate the social and beneficent relations of 
peace; a government, in a word, whose conduct within 
and without may bespeak the most noble of all ambitions 
— that of promoting peace on earth and good will to men. 

"These contemplations, sweetening the remnant of my 
days, will animate my prayers for the happiness of my 
beloved country, and a perpetuity of the institutions 
under which it is enjoyed." 



CHAPTER XXXV 

THE RETIRED STATESMAN 

Having seen Monroe take the oath of office, March 4, 
181 7, Madison departed for Montpelier, never again 
to hold Federal office. He continued the example 
set by his predecessors in the presidency, and pre- 
served the dignity of his retirement carefully, keep- 
ing entirely aloof from participation in political affairs, 
and refusing to lend his influence in favour of 
any man's candidacy for office. Soon after he re- 
turned to MontpeHer he had printed a form of letter, 
which he sent to office-seekers who solicited his recom- 
mendation.* It stated that his personal relations with 
the President were such that he would not embarrass 
him by asking favours, and that he had determined to 
refuse to recommend any appointments. 

When the wave of Jackson enthusiasm was at its height 
he resisted a concerted effort to extract from him some 
assistance to the party opposed to Jackson. It was 
confidently believed that he was in sympathy with that 
party, and the anti-Jackson convention at Richmond 
determined to put him at the head of its Hst of nominations 
of presidential electors, Monroe being also named. James 
Barbour, formerly Governor of Virginia, and a number 
of others importimed him to accept, Barbour declaring 
that by doing so he would decide the election,! but he 
would not yield ; and when he and Monroe were nominated 
in spite of their refusal, they decHned positively to serve. 
With Jackson's conduct of the presidential office he had 
no sympathy, and he did not conceal the fact from his 

* "Early Office Seeking," — N. Y. Evening Post, Nov. 26, 1898. 
t Dept. of State MSS. 

364 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 365 

friends, although he resolutely refused to put it in the 
form of a pubHc statement. He was not troubled by 
fears that Jackson's methods would be an example for a 
successor to follow. "That a series of them [Presidents 
of the United States] should do so," he said, "with the 
support of the people, is a possibility opposed to a moral 
certainty.''* 

When it was arranged to hold a convention in 1829 to 
make a new constitution for Virginia, he felt obliged to 
accept an election as a delegate from his county. He had 
advocated such a convention when he was in the Legislat- 
ure nearly fifty years before. His chief objections to the 
constitution of 1776 were that it was passed before the 
Declaration of Independence was made, and consequently 
when the power of forming a permanent State govern- 
ment did not exist, and that it had never been submitted 
to the people for their ratification. The proposition for 
a second convention could not then be carried, mainly 
because Patrick Henry was opposed to it, and the consti- 
tution continued in use for fifty years. Before going to 
the convention of 1829, ^Monroe, who was also elected a 
delegate, proposed that Madison be chosen for president, 
with a vice-president to perform the active duties of the 
position,! but Madison would not agree, and when the 
convention met himself put Monroe in nomination, and 
he was elected without opposition. Madison was seventy- 
eight years old and quite infirm in health, but his mental 
faculties were unimpaired. The Governor of the State, 
Wilham B. Giles, sent him and Mrs. IMadison a pressing 
invitation to be his guests while the convention was in 
session, but they refused to embarrass him, and stayed 
at a Mr. Duvall's.t Every deference was shown to Madi- 
son in the convention and he accepted a fair share of 
labour on the committees. He made a speech Decem- 
ber 2. The official report says: "The members rushed 

*To Edward Coles, October 15, 1834. Works (Cong. Ed.) IV, 366. 

t Dept. of State MSS. 

tid. 



366 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

from their seats and crowded about him."* Among 
them was John Randolph of Roanoke, who held his hand 
to his ear to catch what was said, but soon dropped it 
with a gesture of despair, for Madison spoke in so low a 
tone that none but those in close proximity could hear 
him. The question upon which the convention divided 
was that of the ratio of representation in the legislature 
and whether or not slaves should be counted in estimating 
population. If they were not counted the part of the 
State where they were most numerous would not be pro- 
tected against burdensome taxation of slave property. 
Madison spoke in favour of reckoning slaves at three- 
fifths of their number, the proportion which he had in- 
troduced into the Federal Constitution. "It is due to 
justice," he said; "due to humanity; due to truth; to the 
sympathies of our nature; in fine, to our character as a 
people, both abroad and at home, that they should be 
considered, as much as possible, in the light of human 
beings, and not as mere property. As such they are acted 
upon by our laws, and have an interest in our laws, they 
may be considered as making a part, though a degraded 
part, of the families to which they belong." If they were 
white, he added, like European serfs, this position would 
not be denied them. "But the mere circumstance of 
complexion cannot deprive them of the character of men." 

The proportion which he recommended was finally ac- 
cepted by the convention, but in its proceedings Madison, 
mindful of the weight of years, did not attempt a dominant 
part, and the side he voted on was often in the minority. 
Indeed, on one occasion upon a minor motion he voted 
Aye when every other member of the convention voted 
No.f 

In the years immediately preceding and following the 
convention came to him the deep rumble of the storm 
in South Carolina over the nullification question. He 
heard in it the most ominous warning against the safety 

* Proceedings and Debates of the Va. State Convention, 537. 
t Journal of the Convention, 118. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 367 

of the Constitution that had arisen since its ratification, 
and he threw himself into the breach, as we have seen 
in a former chapter of this book, to protest that there 
was no connection between this destructive doctrine and 
his protest against the ahen and sedition laws in 1798. 
He gave such sympathy and assistance as he could to the 
Union party of South Carolina, and among his corre- 
spondents was one of the most valiant leaders of that 
party, Thomas S. Grimke, of Charleston. He realized 
the full import and effect of the nulHfication propaganda. 
To Edward Coles he said, August 29, 1834: "Nullifica- 
tion has the effect of putting powder under the Constitu- 
tion and Union, and a match in the hand of every party 
to blow them up at pleasure ; and for its progress, hearken 
to the tone in which it is now preached ; cast your eye on 
its menacing increasing minorities in most of the South- 
ern States without a decrease in any one of them. Look 
at Virginia herself, and read in the Gazettes, and in the pro- 
ceedings of popular meetings, the figure which the anarch- 
ical principle now makes, in contrast with the scouting 
reception given to it but a short time ago. 

"It is not probable that this offspring of the discon- 
tents of South Carolina will ever approach success in a ma- 
jority of the States. But a susceptibility of the con- 
tagion in the Southern States is visible, and the danger 
is not to be concealed that the sympathies arising from 
known causes, and the inculcated impression of a perma- 
nent incompatibility of interests between the South and 
the North, may put it in the power of popular leaders 
aspiring to the highest stations, and despairing of suc- 
cess on the Federal theatre, to unite the South, on some 
critical occasion, in a course that will end in creating a 
new theatre of great though inferior extent. In pur- 
suing this course, the first and most obvious course is 
nullification ; the next secession ; and the last, a farewell 
separation."* 

Public labours of a non-political character Madison 

♦Works (Cong. Ed.) IV, 357, 358. 



368 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

accepted to a limited extent. The year before his death 
he was elected president of the Washington National 
Llonument Society to succeed Chief Justice Marshall and 
accepted the post as a purely honourary one. His con- 
nection with the University of Virginia was, however, 
his chief active employment after his retirement. In 
the founding of that institution he was the devoted 
assistant of Jefferson. November 14, 1794, Bishop 
James Madison wrote to tell him that two years 
before Jefferson had broached the scheme of establishing 
a State university in some central position " upon a liberal 
& extensive plan." When Jefferson retired temporarily 
from public life he suggested that Madison might come 
into the Legislature and further the scheme. "Will you 
give us your aid," said the Bishop, "in perfecting the 
plan?" Madison replied that the plan was Jefferson's, 
and he thought ought to wait on Jefferson, so it was 
agreed to permit it to sleep.* It was evident from Bishop 
Madison's letters that he hoped himself to become the 
head of the faculty of the new university, but he died in 
181 2 before anything tangible towards estabhshing it had 
been accomplished. 

The Albemarle Academy was chartered, but got no 
further, and from the project came in 181 6 Central Col- 
lege, with Jefferson at the head of the board of visitors 
and Madison a member. Two years later both were of 
the commission that formed from Central College the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, and Madison was elected on the first 
board of visitors, continuing on every subsequent board, 
until on Jefferson's death in 1826 he succeeded him as 
Rector. This office, concerned directly with the manage- 
ment of the University even in minute details, he filled 
actively until his feebleness became so great that he could 
not go out.f In his will he bequeathed to the university 
his library, and it remained a noble monument to his in- 

* William and Mary College Quarterly, Jtily, 1902. 

t "Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia," Bureau of 
Education Circular, 1888. 



LIFE OF JA:\IES MADISON 369 

terest in the University until it was swept away by the 
fatal fire of 1895. 

Upon Charles Carroll's death in 1833, Madison was 
elected President of the Colonization Society, and al- 
though he did not accept he had hopes that it might 
succeed in its object. In 1831 (December 28) he wrote: 
"Many circumstances of the present moment seem to 
concur in brightening the prospects of the Society, and 
cherishing the hope that the time will come when the 
dreadful calamity which has so long afflicted our country, 
and filled so many with despair, will be gradually re- 
moved, and by means consistent with justice, peace, and 
the general satisfaction; thus giving to our country the 
full enjoyment of the blessings of liberty, and to the world 
the full benefit of its great example."* 

In an old age rendered bright by optimism slavery 
was the one dark shadow that hung over him. Harriet 
Martineau visited him about the time of his election to 
the Presidency of the Colonization Society. " I will only 
mention," she says, "that the finest of his characteristics 
appeared to me to be his inexhaustible faith ; faith that a 
well-founded commonwealth may, as our motto declares, 
be immortal ; not only because the people, its constituency, 
never die, but because the principles of justice in which 
such a commonwealth originates never die out of the 
people's heart and mind. This faith shone brightly 
through the whole of ]\Ir. ]\Iadison's conversation except 
on one subject. With regard to slavery he owned him- 
self almost in despair. He had been quite so till the in- 
stitution of the Colonization Society."! 

Harriet Martineau wrote a full account of her visit to 
Montpelier for the gratification of " the strong interest felt 
in England about this virtuous statesman," When she 
saw him he was eighty-three years old, and so disabled by 
rheumatism that he lived in one room. He rose before 
nine o'clock and sat in his easy chair till ten at night. He 

* To R. R. Gurley. Works (Cong. Ed.) IV, 213. 
t " Retrospect of Western Travel," I, 191, et seq. 



370 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

complained of one ear being deaf and that his eyesight 
was not good. He could, however, hear ordinary con- 
versation, and could read perfectly well. He sat in his 
chair with a pillow behind him, dressed in a black silk 
dressing-gown, with gray worsted gloves on his hands to 
keep them warm, and a gray and w^hite cap on his head, 
because he was bald. His voice was clear and his manner 
lively and playful. His teeth were still good, and Miss 
Martineau says he had "an uncommonly pleasant coun- 
tenance." His energy is illustrated from the fact that 
he maintained through Miss Martineau' s ear-trumpet an 
animated conversation almost continuously for the three 
days of her visit. "He talked more on the subject of 
slavery than on any other," she says, "acknowledging 
without limitation or hesitation all the evils with which 
it had ever been charged." He " admitted the great and 
various difficulties attending the scheme [of colonization] 
and recurred to the expression that he was only * less in 
despair than formerly about slavery.' " The conversa- 
tion ranged over a wide field. He spoke of Malthus, and 
said Franklin and two others had anticipated him in 
comparing the rates of increase of population and food, 
but that Malthus had been the first to draw out the doc- 
trine. As we have seen, Madison himself had touched 
upon it some years before Malthus wrote. He spoke in 
favour of international cop^^right, "and wished that Eng- 
lish authors should be j)rotected from piracy in the United 
States without delay," He recurred to the subject of 
religious liberty in the United States, and ' ' declared him- 
self perfectly satisfied that there is in the United States a 
far more ample and equal provision for pastors, and of 
religious instruction for the people, than could have been 
secured by a religious establishment of any kind; and 
that one of the greatest services which his country will 
be hereafter perceived to have rendered to the world, will 
be the having proved that religion is the more cared for 
the more unreservedly it is committed to the affections 
of the people," 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 371 

Miss Martineau was introduced to the Madisons in a 
friendly letter from Josiah Quincy, then President of 
Harvard College. One of the most pleasing features of 
the Montpelier life was the revival of old friendships and 
the mellowed tone cast by time over past political en- 
mities. Charles Pinckney wrote from Charlestown, Sep- 
tember 2, 1820: "Within a few days it will be 33 years 
the day we dined together on signing the Constitution — 
what changes have taken place since & in my opinion 
one of the worst to us is that we are so much older than 
we were then, for in spite of all that the divines and phi- 
losophers may tell us I am honest enough to confess that 
I think old age is not the most comfortable state in the 
world." He had, he said, often said this to Franklin, 
who had agreed with him and remarked '"that it had 
been a good world to him & his life a successful one & 
that he should like to live it over again.' ' '* 

In 1824 there was a resumption of the friendly relations 
with Edward Livingston which had been interrupted for 
many years. "Mr. Livingston," Monroe wrote, "inti- 
mated to me some time since, his desire to hold with you 
and Mr. Jefferson, the same relation which he held in 1 798, 
& that I could communicate that sentiment to you on his 
part, & apprize him of the result. ' ' Livingston's overtures 
were willingly accepted, and Madison encouraged him 
thereafter in his political and scientific career, f 

The old contemporaries were dying off and the great 
triumvirate was broken by Jefferson's death in 1826. 
February 1 7 he wrote a long letter to IMadison about the 
University and his private affairs, which were in a distress- 
ing condition : ' ' But why afflict you with these details ? " 
he said. " Indeed, I cannot tell, unless pains are lessened 
by communication with a friend. The friendship which 
has subsisted between us, now half a century, and the 
harmony of our political principles and pursuits, have 
been sources of constant happiness to me through that 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



372 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

long period. And if I remove beyond the reach of atten- 
tions to the University, or beyond the bourne of Hfe itself, 
as I soon must, it is a comfort to have that institution 
under your care, and an assurance that it will not be 
wanting. It has also been a great solace to me, to believe 
that you are engaged in vindicating to posterity the course 
we have pursued for preserving to them, in all their purity, 
the blessings of self-government, which we had assisted 
too in acquiring for them. If ever the earth has beheld 
a system of administration conducted with a single and 
steadfast eye to the general interest and happiness of those 
committed to it, one which, protected by truth, can never 
know reproach, it is that to which our lives have been 
devoted. To myself you have been a pillar of support 
through life. Take care of me w^hen dead, and be assured 
that I shall leave with you my last affections." 

On July 2 Jefferson conversed for the last time. The 
welfare of the University was in his thoughts, and he ex- 
pressed confidence that Madison would carry on the work.* 
The next day he was unconscious, and he died on July 4. 

Five years later, on the same great anniversary, Monroe 
died. His last letter to Madison was dated April 11, 
1 83 1. He described his plans, which compelled his leav- 
ing Virginia and going to live in New York, where his 
daughters were settled. " I deeply regret," he said, " that 
there is no prospect of our ever meeting again, since so 
long have we been connected and in the most friendly 
intercourse, in public & private life, that a final separa- 
tion is among the most distressing incidents which could 
occur. . . I beg you to assure Mrs. Madison that I 
never can forget the friendly relation which has existed 
between her & my family. It often reminds me of 
incidents of the most interesting character. My daughter, 
Mrs. Hay, will live with me, who with the whole family 
here unite in affectionate regards to both of you." 

On June 30 came a letter from Alexander Hamilton, 
Jr., saying that Monroe was dying, and July 7 Tench 

* Tucker's "Life of Jefferson," II, 495. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 373 

Ringgold wrote that in his last illness he had often spoken 
of Madison and their friendship of forty years and his 
great regret "that he should leave this world without 
beholding you."* From the friendly offices of Alexander 
Hamilton's son on this occasion it would seem that his 
father left no legacy of bitterness towards Madison, 
but this had been shown some years before by a cordial 
letter from Mrs. Hamilton asking a favour of Madison. 
During his retirement there was no abatement in the 
reading or writing, and he was regarded by literary men as 
their patron. From them he received many books, some 
of which he read and all of which he politely acknowl- 
edged. His Hterary taste was versatile, but the variety 
of productions offered to it was excessive. F. R. Hassler 
sent his popular exposition of the system of the universe 
and his elements of geometry; Richard Emmon's "Fre- 
donaid," a long poem, reached him through the poet's 
brother; John Finch sent his essay on "The Boundaries 
of Empires"; John A. Graham, "Graham's Junius"; 
Weems, whose "Life of Washington" was then (18 19) in 
its twenty-first edition, begged his acceptance of his " Life 
of Marion " ; Mary Randolph sent him a copy of the second 
edition of her cookery book and asked his opinion of it. 
From George Ticknor came the "Memoir of Lafayette" 
which the ]\Iarquis had himself corrected; Matthew 
Carey rained economic pamphlets upon him ; and George 
Tucker, as a neighbour and friend, consulted him freely 
in his literary work. In 1831, he was invited by the 
American Peace Society to serve on a committee in con- 
junction with John ]\Iarshall, John C. Calhoun, William 
Wirt and Joseph Story to award a prize for the best 
essay on "A Congress of Nations for the Amicable Ad- 
justment of National Disputes and for the Promotion of 
Universal Peace without Recourse to Arms," but he de- 
clined the labour. He received countless reports and 
proceedings of political, educational, charitable, scientific, 
agricultural and learned societies; he took a real interest 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



374 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

in the literary work of some of his correspondents — -in 
Edward Livingston's Criminal Code; in R. H. Lee's life 
of his grandfather of the same name, Madison's old op- 
ponent; in Wheaton's "Life of William Pinkney," and 
Saunderson's "Lives of the 'Signers.' " Noah Webster 
begged his patronage of his new dictionary in 1826, and 
explained to him the extent and nature of his researches 
in preparing it. Gales and Seaton of the National 
Intelligencer occasionally wrote to him in confidence, ask- 
ing him to settle some controversy involving the politics 
of the past, but he was disposed to avoid everything 
tending to involve him in disputation, although he 
freely gave such information as he had to those who were 
engaged in legitimate historical work. One of these was 
Jonathan Elliot, to whom he loaned the printed ac- 
counts he had collected of the proceedings of the con- 
ventions in the various States called to consider the 
question of ratifying the Constitution. So far as his own 
speeches were concerned in the Virginia Convention of 
1788, while he was not thoroughly satisfied with Robert- 
son's report, he was willing to let it pass as in the main 
substantially correct. Jared Sparks came to him in 
1827, fresh from his examination of the Washington 
papers at Mount Vernon, and he loaned him such of 
Washington's letters as he desired to use. He assisted 
Sparks also in preparing the "Diplomatic Correspond- 
ence of the American Revolution" and the "Life and 
Letters of Gouverneur Morris." He wrote many letters 
himself, some of them long ones, several sketches 
on the theory of the government of the United States, 
and in the last year of his life a long refutation of the 
doctrine of nullification. The most important literary 
labour of his declining years was the arrangement of his 
notes of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which he 
designed for posthumous publication, making, however, 
few alterations in the report as he had taken it down. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

PRIVATE LIFE AT MONTPELIER* 

Although Madison was a man of public affairs and of 
books, he was a careful and progressive farmer and took 
a practical interest in agriculture. Through Robert R. 
Livingston, who first introduced them in America and 
regarded them with much favour, he was induced to raise 
those Merino sheep from the wool of which his inaugural 
coat had been made, and he sold their wool and exchanged 
them with his neighbours in order that the breed might 
be tested. He sold hams, bacon, tongues, barrels of beef 
and pork. He took great interest in his garden, and 
through Latrobe procured a great variety of cabbage and 
other garden seeds. He was fond of experimenting and 
assisted the experiments of others. To Isaac Coffin, a 
Virginian who had moved to England, he sent a pair of 
wild turkeys, receiving as a return some English pheasants, 
which he liberated in the woods of Montpelier. He was 
a horse breeder on a moderate scale, kept a stallion, and 
paid part of the bill for medical attendance of his family 
physician with the horse's services. He experimented 
with mules for a time, receiving ten from Kentucky 
through his cousin, James Taylor. 

The main source of income from his farms was from 
tobacco. This for many years he shipped to his agent at 
Liverpool, James Maury, but the last ten years of his life 
he found it more advantageous to sell it in Richmond, 
John A. Lay being his agent and the Farmers' Bank his 
depository. In May, 1825, Lay deposited to his credit 

* In the latter part of his life Madison spelled Montpelier with two 
"I's," the more correct way, as the name was derived from Montpellier 
in France; but he did not so spell it during his earlier years, and the 
spelUng with one "1" has always maintained in Virginia. 

375 



376 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

for tobacco sold, $787.56; m June, $597.80; in July, 
$548.11; and in August, $213.90. These figures would 
indicate a considerable sum in gross receipts from the 
crop, but the actual profit was probably not half as much. 
In the last ten years of his life he was unable to himself 
actively superintend his estate on account of his failing 
health, and decreased his farming activity. He realized 
also that this industry, like all others, was cursed by 
slavery, Francis Corbin wrote to him October 10, 18 19: 
" I think slavery is working its own cure. Under the 
best management, with daily vexation and never-ending 
violence to our feelings, it does not afford us two per ct, 
upon our capital, and often brings us into debt. , , . 
You have now had experience enough, my clear sir, as a 
practical Farmer, to be convinced, I suspect, that my 
opinion, namely, that farming and slavery are incom- 
patible" [is correct].* 

The social duties of his position in the country he per- 
formed with enjoyment. Of his visitors he said that some 
were bounties and others taxes, but there were enough of 
the former to counteract the disagreeableness of the latter. 
His house was well adapted for receiving guests, having 
become by successive improvements more than merely a 
comfortable residence. The chief enlargements were 
made in 1809, upon designs drawn by William Thornton, 
who made the first accepted plans of the Capitol at Wash- 
ington, and Latrobe lent his assistance in further improve- 
ments, which included the addition of the wings. The 
result was simplicity, but symmetry of proportion and 
faultlessness of taste. In the basement there were two 
kitchens, one being for his mother's establishment, which 
during her life was entirely separate from the rest of the 
household, several large wine cellars, and rooms for a few 
household servants. On the first floor were the rooms 
his mother occupied— parlour, dining-room, and two bed- 
rooms, — the large drawing-room, his own study, a small 
room adjoining, where his secretary had his desk, the 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 377 

dining-room, and library. On the second floor were 
eight large bedrooms. After his mother's death in 1820 
the rooms which she had occupied became four additional 
bedrooms, making in regular use twenty-two rooms, 
besides the servants' quarters, which were entirely sep- 
arate from the house. The principal living rooms of the 
house were profusely ornamented with pictures and busts, 
one being commonly known as "the statuary room." 
Only a few of the ornaments need be enumerated. In 
the vestibule from which opened the drawing-room was 
an engraving of the Descent from the Cross, a print of 
Charles II of England, a group of Venus and Psyche, 
a pastoral piece, and a landscape by Teniers; in the 
drawing-room was a portrait and bust of Washington, a 
portrait of Jefferson, bust of Paul Jones, busts of Homer 
and Socrates, engravings of the Falls of Niagara, Raph- 
ael's La Belle Jardiniere, Love Chained, the Death of 
Montgomery, the Battle of Bimker Hill, a marble bust of 
Joel Barlow, a portrait on ivory of the Empress Josephine, 
and a miniature wax profile of Madison's mother by Vala- 
perto, beside several portraits of Madison and his wife. 
In the dining-room was a portrait of Louis XVIII after 
the drawing by Isabey, and a Chinese drawing of Con- 
fucius. 

In addition to these he bought in 18 19 from the artist, 
G. Cardelli, busts of Jefferson, Monroe and Adams, and 
in that year CardelH made busts of himself and his wife. 
John H. Browere made their busts in 1827, James B. 
Longacre made his sketch of Madison in 1833, and in the 
same year A. P. Durand painted him for George P. Morris, 
of the Mirror. He had already been painted by Gilbert 
Stewart and his friend Charles Wilson Peale. The great- 
est work of art in the house was the life-sized marble me- 
dallion bust of Madison which hmig in the vestibule. It 
had been made in 1792 by Giuseppe Ceracchi, the ill- 
starred Italian sculptor, who was guillotined in 1801 for 
complicity in the plot to murder Napoleon. Being a born 
revolutionist, he came to Philadelphia when Madison was 



378 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

in the Continental Congress, and made busts of Hamilton, 
Washington and others. He contemplated creating an 
elaborate monument commemorative of the Revolution, 
and under Madison's encouragement issued a circular 
asking for subscriptions to defray the expense, but sud- 
denly conceiving that his patrons wanted to get rid of 
him, he went back to Italy, leaving behind him drafts 
upon Washington and others for payment for the busts 
he had given them.* 

The taste shown by Madison in the architecture of his 
house and the ornamentation of the rooms had a further 
illustration in the planning of the grounds. About a 
hundred yards west of the house he laid out before his 
retirement a large terraced garden in the form of a horse- 
shoe, intended, according to local tradition, to have a 
general resemblance to the Hall of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. North of the house he planted an avenue of 
pines leading to a circular collonade above an ice-house. 
This was built in 1809, and was the first ice-house con- 
structed in that part of Virginia. The country people 
would not believe that ice could be kept all summer, and 
to convince his incredulous overseer, Edward Brockman, 
Madison promised him ice for a mint julep on July 4 
in return for a Christmas turkey. In front of the house 
lay a stretch of meadow fringed by the deep forest, and 
about twelve miles distant the main range of the Blue 
Ridge Mountains rises in the heavens. Surrounding the 
sides and back of the house was a sweep of lawn dotted 
with large forest trees and a few smaller trees of rarer 
variety which Madison set out. 

Those who had the privilege of resorting to Montpelier 
were charmed with the beauty of the park, the elegance 
of the house and the grandeur of the mountain view, 
but better than all of these, they found in the master of 
the place a perfect host. The serenity of his temper was 
never disturbed, and only two instances have been dis- 

* Madison to George Tucker, April 30, 1830. Works (Cong. Ed.) 
IV, 71. 



LIFE OF JA:\IES MADISON 379 

covered of guests who were displeased with the treatment 
they received. One of these was his cousin, Zachary 
Taylor, afterward President of the United States, who dined 
at Montpelierwhen Madison was President, and being then 
a junior officer in the army, seized the occasion to ask a 
favour. He was told that public favours were not granted 
for private or family reasons, and being offended at the 
rebuff, left the house ahead of his party without biddmg 
his host good-bye. The other instance was that of a broth- 
er-in-law who took offense at some fancied slight one 
evening and sent a challenge to mortal combat by a small 
coloured boy early in the morning; but Madison burned 
the note and made no answer. 

In the current of domestic life which ran so smoothly 
there was one element which caused uneasiness. John 
Payne Todd, Mrs. Madison's son by her first marriage, 
was a mere infant when she married Madison, and was 
treated by him as a son. Never severe with any one, 
the step-father probably erred on the side of too great 
indulgence towards his wife's child. The boy was sent 
to a French seminary in Baltimore, went abroad with Clay 
when the Treaty of Ghent was negotiated, and basked m 
the favours of society, which came to him easily because 
of his mother's position and of his own adaptability to a 
life of pleasure. He ran up bills for fine clothes and drifted 
into the gambUng habits prevalent among a class of the 
population in Washington. He took to the bottle, and 
from a graceful youth of wild tendencies developed mto 
a graceless man of confirmed dissipation, whose miscon- 
duct caused grief and mortification to the fond mother 
and her husband. 

The burden of meeting the indebtedness incurred by 
Todd fell entirely upon :\Iadison, and was a considerable 
financial strain. In addition he contributed to the sup- 
port of his nephews, paying for the education of one at 
Hampden Sidney and another at WilHam and Mary. 
They wrote to him in a filial spirit and did not hesitate 
to ask him for money when they needed it. These family 



38o LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

obligations were not, however, the main cause of the 
pecuniary embarrassments which harassed the last years 
of his life. To support such an estabHshment as that 
of Montpelier was an attempt sure to end in disaster ex- 
cept to a man of well-assured income. The household 
was large, the flow of guests incessant, the hospitality 
lavish ; there was the cost of clothing and feeding a hun- 
dred negroes, and the returns from planting were dis- 
tressingly small. Retrenchments became necessary a 
few years after the permanent return to ]\iontpelier from 
Washington. The French gardener, whose wages of $400 a 
year were considered enormous in Virginia, was dismissed 
and his place filled by one of his black assistants. The 
stable of driving and riding horses was decreased year by 
year, until at the end there was but a single pair of driv- 
^|ing horses. In 1825 Madison asked Nicholas Biddle, 
President of the Bank of the United States, for a long loan 
bf $6,000 on his farms and was refused. The bank, Bid- 
die said, already had an embarrassing amount of real 
estate and had adopted a rule against long loans on such 
property.* Madison was obliged, accordingly, to sell 
some of his land, and even to part with some of the shares 
of stock he owned. He was repeating in a less degree 
the experience of Jefferson, who, if he had lived much 
longer, would have been obHged to abandon Monticello, 
and of Monroe, who was finally obliged to give up Oak 
Hill. 

One asset Madison had which was an embarrassment 
and expense rather than a useful possession. His slaves 
had been acquired from time to time, partly by inheri- 
tance, and most of them had been with him for many years 
and could not be sold. The kindness of his nature ex- 
tended to them and was rewarded by faithful attachment 
I on their part. They knew him in distinction to his 
\ brothers as "Mas'r Jimmy." A survivor among them, 
Nancy Barbour, still living at a great age in the village of 
Orange, declares that he never got angry with any of 

* Dept. of State MSS. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 381 

them, and that they preferred going to him with requests 
to going to his wife. She recalls one instance of his per- 
sonal castigation of a slave, when Reuben, a worthless 
scamp, returned from some unlawful errand with a pal- 
pably false excuse and was punished by three light taps on 
the shoulder from his master's walking stick. 

The personal impressions of Madison taken down from 
the lips of his cousin, Miss Sarah Conway, of Smithfield, 
Va., when eighty-nine years of age and still in the full 
possession of her faculties, may be put down here. She 
often visited Montpelier as a girl from twelve to fifteen 
years of age, and Madison and his wife were both fond 
of young people and made them feel at home. He was 
always neat in his dress and was assisted in his toilet by 
Paul (Jennings), his body-servant, and Paul always ac- 
companied him when he travelled. He wore shorts with 
long silk stockings, and silver buckles that almost covered 
the tops of his shoes. His hair was in a queue, tied with 
a bow of black ribbon. The pitch of his voice was mod- 
erate and he spoke clearly and distinctly. He did not 
gesticulate in ordinary conversation, but did when telling 
an amusing story. At his dinner table there was always 
wine, which he drank, but he was temperate and sober 
in all things. He was a very liberal man, and after his re- 
tirement from public life on one occasion invited every 
family in Orange County to an entertainment, and the 
grounds were covered with tables to accommodate the 
people, the more distinguished guests and elderly people 
being entertained in the house. He was without ostenta- 
tion, and moved about among his neighbours as any 
private gentleman would have done. He and his wife 
lived together without straining their prerogatives, and 
everybody admired and loved Mrs, Madison. She was 
an excellent manager and had everything about her in 
abundance without waste. His temper was even and 
placid and not easily ruffled. He never laughed boister- 
ously, but was cheerful and playful in temperament, fond 
of a pleasant joke, but always dignified. 



382 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

In the daily routine breakfast was eaten at about nine 
o'clock and dinner at three, the table being set with a 
liberal display of silver and fine china. In the evening 
the family gathered in the dra^4ng-room, and the young 
ladies, tt whom there were usually several in the house, 
played the piano and sang. Madison spent much of his 
time in his study, but was the life of the evening circle. 
When his ailments increased so that he could not get up 
and down stairs mthout discomfort, he had a bed put in 
his study, the door of which opened into the dining-room, 
and when he was too ill to sit at the dinner table he would 
have his chair pushed to the door, where he could join 
in the conversation. Miss Conway says that he did not 
laugh boisterously, but there is good evidence that in 
circles of intimate friends he sometimes gave way to un- 
restrained facetiousness and set his hearers into roars of 
laughter. "A gentleman," says Randall in his Life of 
Jefferson, "who was intimate at Montpelier, long after its 
OT\Tier's retirement, mentioned to us visiting him on one 
occasion when he was severely indisposed and confined 
to his bed. When the family and friends sat down to 
dinner, the invalid desired the door of his apartment 
to be left open 'so that he could hear what was going 
on.' Every few moments he was heard to cry out in a 
feeble but most humourous voice, ' Doctor, are you push- 
ing about the bottle? Do your duty. Doctor, or I must 
cashier you.'" 

Of the jokes with which the merry old man amused his 
friends none have been preser\"ed, but one of his favourite 
subjects was the adventures of the Baroness Reidesel, the 
wiie of General Reidesel, a prisoner of war during the 
Revolution. They lived at CoUe, Mazzei's plantation, 
and the Baroness, who was big, handsome and a great 
gossip, rode her horse astride Hke a man, and was well 
kno^Ti to all the country people. She -wTCstled bravely 
with the English tongue and made many remarkable 
mistakes in using it. 






leave fhm. -mrjm th^iM a. fe^ar jssr'jsrifis st s. Ime^ sr. - 

3MDt Mt tlie ST. • .--,.-:; fr^ -. 

ts.;. - .., -. ...- . .-■- -- ^--- - 

x^:. ' ■ :. lire (dsare r ■; (S^ it sjt jptrgsejant/" 

T' --'^ tiae r^.y.'r^. <n-^ Mir^. . - , /jca to luer fneck'i MnSu 
T; jrsi^.- -a, ML a IgstSgsr T. - 

hsU-wiii : _ • ■•:-ni(gsctTiQtS3es.' ■ ' . '--"^ 

WjCCkDIIl jOSudl jOSiii;- jjoiiiJi. iii&JjAji * vC jji^iS' 3i - .,Ji'' 

...,,., -_ . _ — . . . - , — i. ij^^ ^ - - --J 

j.^^;_ . -- :. ^..^"^^ ... ..^- ^iJTFriXtg; „ - .; -- -^ - --'- 

■^iTOEi taise im iet^ ?of% '- '' It is loot f^nitjid- sirad- sit eecj Si^ 

y - jgLoaesits, i Bsve mSesd 'gm. z: - - " "^ 

■jpesiLbmi stages ©ff inw f " ' " _'r ^ "'- - ^ 



384 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 

The crippled condition of his fingers was almost con- 
stant for the last four years of his life. February 19, 
1832, he wrote a note to Robert Treat Paine, labouriously 
printing each letter. 

There was no continuous period after his retirement 
when his health was good. In the Autumn of 182 1, he 
had the prevailing bilious fever, but he recovered quickly. 
He had at this time and occasionally afterwards the bene- 
fit of the advice of an eminent physician, Robley Dungli- 
son, who held the chair of medicine at the University and 
was at the head of the faculty until he went to Baltimore 
in 1833. It was on one of Dunglison's half friendly, half 
professional visits that he found his patient reclining on a 
sofa and talking to the ladies of the household. He 
remonstrated with him for not lying still. "Oh," said 
Madison, "you know I talk most easily when I lie."* 

He was quite ill in 1827 and in 1829 before he went to 
the State convention. The intermissions in his rheumatic 
seizures became less frequent and in the stmimer of 1831 
he was taken violently. The following June Dunglison 
came to him hurriedly, having heard alarming reports, 
but he rallied. For the last twenty years of his life his 
regular family physician was his cousin, Dr. Charles 
Taylor, and associated with him towards the last were 
Drs. Thomas Slaughter and Peyton Grymes, both of 
Orange. 

Early in the summer of 1836 the report went forth that 
he was sinking. Nevertheless, he was moved each day 
from his bed to his chair, and his mind continued active, 
for he would be read to by his wife and would dictate. 
His mind was clear, although he expressed a few days 
before his death some concern that he was unable to con- 
nect the memory of events readily. On the evening of 
June 27, his physicians were with him for the last time. 
He had become extremely emaciated, was mere skin and 
bones, and was growing gradually weaker. On the morn- 
ing of June 28 he was moved from his bed to his chair as 

* Randall's "Jefferson." 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON 385 

usual, and his niece brought him his breakfast and left 
it with him, urging him to eat. When she returned to the 
room a few minutes later he was dead. No one was with 
him at the time; he made no parting speeches and took 
no sorrowful farewells; but among his papers was found 
this, his last message to his fellow-countrymen : 

"ADVICE TO MY COUNTRY. 

"As this advice, if it ever see the light, will not do so 
till I am no more, it may be considered as issuing from the 
tomb, where truth alone can be respected, and the happi- 
ness of man alone consulted. It will be entitled, therefore, 
to whatever weight can be derived from good intentions, 
and from the experience of one who has served his coun- 
try in various stations through a period of forty years ; who 
espoused in his youth, and adhered through his life, to the 
cause of its liberty ; and who has borne a part in most of 
the great transactions which will constitute epochs of its 
destiny. 

"The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my 
convictions is, that the union of the states be cher- 
ished AND perpetuated. LET THE OPEN ENEMY TO IT 
BE REGARDED AS A PANDORA WITH HER BOX OPENED, AND 
THE DISGUISED ONE AS THE SERPENT CREEPING WITH HIS 
DEADLY WILES INTO PARADISE." 

THE END. 



INDEX 



Adams, Henry, on charges against 

Madison, 317 
Adams, John, approves ahenand 
sedition laws, 251 
fails to enforce alien law, 259 
solicits loans in Europe, 35 
supported for Vice-Presidency 

by Madison, 213 
wishes to appoint Madison 
Minister, 240 
Adams, John Quincy, commis- 
sioner for peace, 355 
Minister to Russia, 355 
Adams, Samuel, opposes Jay 

treaty, 229 
Adams, William, Bi-itish com- 
missioner for peace, 356 
Alien and sedition laws, approved 

by Federalists, 251 
Ambler, J., Treasurer of Va., on 

finances, 33 
American Wlaig Society, fotmded, 

15 
Ames, Fisher, complains of bar- 
gains over capital, 197 
defends bank bill, 202 
Amis, Thomas, journey down 

Mississippi, 62 
Annapolis Convention, adjourns, 
107 
agreed on, 92 
meets, 105 

outcome of Mt. Vernon meet- 
ing, 93 
Annapolis proposed for capital, 
192 
rejected, 192 
Applications for office received by 

Madison, 166 
Armstrong, Gen. John, appointed 
Secretary of War, 329 
resigns, 334 
Assumption of State debts, Ham- 
ilton's plan, 182 
before House, 185 



Assumption of State debts, Ham- 
ilton's plan, defeated, 184 
revived in Senate, 197 

Astor, John Jacob, assists treas- 
ury, 335 

Bache, Benjamin Franklin, editor 

of The Aurora, 240 
Back lands, area of, 45 

States agree to surrender, 44 
Virginia cession, 45 
Baldwin, Abraham, on Senate, 

118. 
Balmaine, Rev. S., marriage 

ceremony by, 244 
Baltimore, House proposes Con- 
gress meet at, 197 
proposed for capital, 192 
Bancroft, George, conversation 

with Madison, 318 
Bank, national, opposed by 
Madison, 201 
recharter fails, 322 
signs new law, 337 
Baptists, increase of, in Virginia, 

79 
persecution of, 12 

Barbour, John S, writes on sub- 
ject of war, 340 

Barbour, Nancy, recollections of 
Madison, 380 

Barker, Jacob, takes part of 
loan, 336 

Barlow, Joel, Minister to France, 

353 
Bassano, Due de, on French 

decrees, 353 

Bayard, James A., commissioner 
for peace, 356 
his projected mission to Eng- 
land, 317 

Beatty, John, a founder of the 
American Whig Society, 15 

Beckley, John, political agent of 
Southern Republicans, 212 



387 



388 



INDEX 



Bedford, Gunning, classmate of 
Madison, 15 
favors State equality, 121 

Bellini, Secretary and Interpreter 
of Council of State, 26 

Benson, Egbert, delegate to An- 
napolis convention, 105 

Benton, Thomas H., on nullifica- 
tion, 263 

Berlin and Milan decrees (French 
decrees) ,305 

Bill of Rights (see Declaration 
of Rights) 

Bishop, Samuel, Collector of Ctis- 
toms at New Haven, 228 

Bladensburg, Madison joins troops 
at, 332 

Blair, John, Councillor of State, 

25 

delegate to ratification conven- 
tion, 147 

delegate to Virginia convention 
of 1776, 3 
Bland, Richard, delegate to Vir- 
ginia convention of 1776, 3 

educated at William and Mary, 

Bland, Theodorick, presents peti- 
tion for second constitutional 
convention, 177 

Bonaparte, Joseph, Livingston 
confers with, 296 

Bonaparte, Napoleon, alleged 
alliance of Madison with, 
340 
Berlin and Milan decrees of, 

, 305 

decides on war with England, 

295 
promises to repeal French 
decrees, 312 
Boston, Federalists in, 343 

Boston town meeting denounces 

Jay treaty, 229 
Boudinot, Elias, defends national 
bank bill, 202 

on speculation in public securi- 
ties, 181 

opposes second constitutional 
convention, 177 

refutes Madison's argument 
against funding debt, 182 

Bounties on exports, opposed by 
Madison, 204 

Bowie, Ralph, writes Madison 
about patronage, 277 



Brackenridge, Hugh Henry, a 
founder of the American Whig 
Society, 15 
classmate of Madison, 15 
Bradford, William, a founder of 
American Whig Society, 15 
college friend of Madison, 15 
Breckinridge, John, introduces 
and amends Kentucky resolu- 
tions, 252 
opposes legislation for religious 
purposes, 80 
Brent, Richard, Representative 
from Virginia, 256 
supports call for papers of Jay 
treaty, 232 
British seizures of American ves- 
sels, 225 
Browere, J. H. J., makes bust of 

Madison, 377 
Bryan, Judge George S., on nulli- 
fication, 270, note 
Burke, Aedanus, denounces bar- 
gain for location of capital, 
194 
position on "assumption," 185 
BvuT, Aaron, at Princeton with 
Madison, 15 
dropped by Republicans, 213 
introduces Madison to Dolly 

Payne Todd, 242 
relations with Madison, 243 
Butler, Pierce, communicates Jay 
treaty to Madison, 228 
on results of constitutional 

convention, 135 
on Senate, 118 

Cabell, John, instructions of, 6 
Cabell, William, educated at 

William and Mary, 13 
Cabinet, changes in, 339 

weakness of, 328 
Calhoun, John C, early consti- 
tutional views of, 268 
member of war party, 322 
report of, in favor of war, 325 
Callender, James Thompson, edi- 
tor, 240 
reimbursement of fine, 278 
threats against Jeiferson, 279 
tried for sedition, 259 
writes to Madison about his 
fine, 279 
Campbell, appointed Secretary of 
Treasury, 336 
resigns, 337 



INDEX 



389 



Canada, plan for invading, 331 
Capital, location of, 189 

New York offers Kingston for, 

190 
two agreed upon, 190 
Cardelli, G., makes busts of 

Madison and his wife, 377 
Carey, Matthew, on Federalists' 

loyalty, 341 
Carrington, Edward, on "funding 
and a,ssumption," 186 
opposes national bank, 210 
reports R. H. Lee's efforts to 

defeat constitution, 145 
reports "Washington's wish that 
Madison enter Senate, 162 
Carroll, Daniel, offers motion for 
location of capital, 194 
on Annapolis convention, 105 
opposes "assumption," 184 
votes for "assumption," 199 
Cary, Archibald, educated at 

William and Mary, 13 
Castlereagh, Lord, writes to Mon- 
roe, 356 
Catholics, defense of, by Madison, 

218 
Catlett, Elizabeth, Madison's 

sponsor, 21 
Catlett, Judith, Madison's spon- 
sor, 21 
Catlett, Rebecca, descent of, 20 
Ceracchi, Giuseppe, makes bust 

of Madison, 377 
Chase, Judge Samuel, approves 

sedition law,2 59 
Chase, Samuel, member of Poto- 
mac Commission, 89 
Cheves, Langdon, one of war 

party, 322 
Chew, Thomas, patents lands 

with Ambrose Madison, 20 
Clark. Abraham, delegate to 

Annapolis convention, 105 
Clark, George Rogers, expedition 

of, 45 
Clay, Henry, commissioner for 
peace, 356 
favors national bank, 337 
one of war party, 322 
opinion of Jefferson and Madi- 
son, 316 
views of nullification, 266 
Clinton, DeWitt, nominated for 

presidency, 326 
Clinton, George, favored by Mad- 
ison for vice-presidency, 213 



Clinton, George, letter to Ran- 
dolph against constitution, 

159 
opposed by Hamilton, 214 
opposed by Madison, 214 
voted for by Virginia, 214 
Cockbum, Admiral, advance of, 

331 
Colonization Society, Madison 

elected President of, 369 
Connecticut favors impost duty, 

41 

Federalists in, 344 

Governor of, refuses to furnish 
militia, 329 

offers back lands, 46 

sends no delegate to Annapolis, 
ips 
Constitution of Virginia (1776) 
agreed to, 8 

Madison's objections to, 365 
Constitution, the, opposition to 
ratification, 139 

project for repeal of, discussed 
in Congress, 177 
Constitutional Convention, com- 
promise of larger and smaller 
States, 123 

Madison sounds public opinion 
on, 104 

origin of idea, 108 

proceedings secret, 116 
Constitutional Convention in Vir- 
ginia, Madison a member of, 

365 

Constitutional Convention, sec- 
ond, asked for by Virginia, 
177 
project disapproved, 178 
urged, 161 

Convention, Constitutional (see 
Constitutional Convention) 

Convention to consider ratifica- 
tion of Constitution (see Rati- 
fication Convention) 

Convention, Virginia, of 1776, i 

Continental Congress, functions 
of members of, 38 
last meeting of, 167 

Conway, Eleanor Rose, Madison's 
mother, descent of, 20 
Francis, descent of, 20 
Madison bom in his house, 21 

Conway, Miss Sarah, recollec- 
tions of Madison, 381 
Cooper, Thomas, editor, 240. 



390 



INDEX 



Copyrights, power of Congress to 
grant, proposed by Madison, 
127 
views on international, 370 
Corbin, Francis, delegate to rati- 
fication convention, 174 
on slavery, 74 
on slavery and farming, 376 
opposes Patrick Henry, 161 
reports Henry's opposition to 
constitution, 160 
Council of State, Madison elected 

a member, 25 
Coiirt of Appeals, Federal, pro- 
vided for by articles of con- 
federation, 131 
Coxe, Tench, delegate to Annap- 
olis, 105 
Crawford, W. H., appointed Sec- 
retary of Treasury, 338 
Cutts, Mrs. Anna, Madison goes 
to her house, 333 

Dallas, Alexander J., Secretary 
of Treasury, 336 
views on the bank, 338 
Dandridge, B., a Councillor of 

State, 25 
Davis, Rev. WilHam, christens 

Madison, 21 
Dawson, J., on sedition law, 251 
Dearborn, Gen., inefficiency of, 328 
Declaration of Rights, committee 
to draft, 6 
provisions of, 7 
Delaware favors impost duty, 41 
Delaware River, site for capital 
on banks of, 191 
chosen, 196 
Deposit, right of, agreed to by 
Spain, 288 
withdrawn, 291 
Dexter, Samuel, opposes extreme 
measures of Federalists, 349 
ridicules CathoHc Church, 218 
Dickinson, John, delegate to 
Annapolis, 105 
on powers of judiciary, 131 
President of Annapolis con- 
vention, 106 
upholds smaller States in Con- 
stitutional Convention, 121, 
122 
Digges, Dudley, a Councillor of 

State, 25 
Dissenters, persecution of, in 
Virginia, 11 



Duane, WilUam, editor, 240 

solicits patronage of State De- 
partment, 282 

Duer, William, on situation in 
New York, 157 

Dunghson, S. Robley, Madison's 
physician, 384 

Durand, A. P., paints Madison's 
portrait, 377 

D'Yrujo, Marquis, on withdrawal 
of right of deposit, 291 

Eggleston, Joseph, Representative 

from Virginia, 256 
Elhot, Jonathan, Madison's as- 
sistance to, 374 
Ellsworth, Mrs. Dorothy, Madi- 
son's landlady, 242 
Ellsworth, Oliver, revives "as- 
sumption," 197 
upholds smaller States in Con- 
stitutional Convention, 121, 
122 
Emancipation sentiment in Vir- 
ginia, 7 1 
Emmons, Richard, sends book 

to Madison, 373 
Episcopal Church in Virginia, 
an act of incorporation, 
80 
a social institution, 79 
condition of, 1 1 
decadence of, 22 
disestablishment of, 78 
Erskine, David Montague, British 
Minister to the United States, 
305 
agreement by, with Madison, 

306 
disavowed and recalled, 307 
Eustis, William, appointed Secre- 
tary of War, 304 
dismissed, 328 
Executive departments, bill to 
establish, 174 

Farewell address, Washington's, 

Madison's draft of, 220 
Farmers' Bank in Richmond, 

Madison's depository, 375 

Federalist, T/it?, atithorship of , 140 

Federal RepubUcans, association 

' of, against constitution, 158 

Fenno, John, editor United States 

Gazette, 235 
Finch, John, sends book to 

Madison, 373 



INDEX 



391 



Fitch, John, inventor, impor- 
tunes Madison, 97 
Floridas, lost by Spain to Eng- 
land, 54 
Floyd, Catherine, engaged to 

Madison, 68 
Foreign Affairs, Secretary of, his 

duties, 63 
Foster, Augustus G., British 
Minister to the United States, 
313 
describes Madison, 273 
France, alleged alliance of 
Madison with, 340 
antagonism of Madison toward 
government of, 354 
Franklin, Benjamin, solicits loans 
in Europe, 35 
views on old age, 371 . 
Freneau, Philip, a founder of the 
American Whig Society, 15 
career of, 236 
classmate of Madison, 15 
editor of the National Gazette, 

23s 

French decrees. Napoleon prom- 
ises to modify, 310 
repeal of reported, 253, 312 
(see Berlin and Milan decrees) 

French revolution, sympathy with 
in America, 215 

"Funding and assumption," un- 
popular in Virginia, 184, 186 

Gale, George, opposes "assump- 
tion," 184 
votes for " assumption," 199 

Gallatin, Albert, commissioner 
for peace, 356 

declines reappointment as Sec- 
retary of Treasury, 338 

hastens cabinet crisis, 319 

on nullification, 264 

rank in cabinet, 303 

service abroad made definite, 
336 

supports call for papers of Jay 
treaty, 232 
Gambler, Lord, British commis- 
sioner for peace, 356 

Gardner, William P., makes 

charges against Richard W ig- 

ner, chief clerk, 282 
Gardoqui, Don Diego, Spanish 

Minister, c«mes to United 

States, 58 



George, Henry, Jefferson antici- 
pates his doctrine, 100 

Georgetown proposed for capital, 
191 

Georgia sends no delegates to 
Annapolis, 105 

Genet, French Minister, comes to 
the United States, 216 
dismissed, 216 

Germantown, chosen for capital 
by Senate, 196 

Gerry, Elbridge, on Senate, 118 
reports disloyalty in Massa- 
chusetts, 341 

Ghent, peace commission meets 
at, 356 

Ghent, Treaty of, 360 

Gibson, Jonathan, Madison's 
sponsor, 21 

Girard, Stephen, assists treasviry, 

335 
Goodrich, Elizur, removed as 

Collector of Customs at New 

Haven, 278 

Gordon, James, delegate to ratifi- 
cation convention, 147 

Gorham, Nathaniel, opposes free 
navigation of Mississippi, 65 

Goulburn, Henry, British com- 
missioner for peace, 356 

Graham, John, appointed chief 
clerk of State Department, 

283 

Graham, John A., sends book to 
Madison, 373 

Grayson, William, opposes consti- 
tution, 144 
opposition leader in ratification 
convention, 144 

Great Britain, projected alliance 
with, 292 

Griffin, Cyrus, sits in last Conti- 
nental Congress, 168 
sums up chances of adoption of 
constitution, 156 

Grundy, Felix, one of war party, 
322 

Grymes, Dr. Peyton, one of 
Madison's physicians, 384 

Hamilton, Alexander, accuses 
Clinton of disloyalty, 156 
bargain by, for capital, 190^ 
charge of monarchist against, 

207 
drafts address of Annapolis 
convention, 106 



392 



INDEX 



Hamilton, Alexander, explains 
powers of judiciary, 130 

favors Madison's appointment 
to French mission, 250 

fulfils bargain for capital, 199 

made citizen of France, 313 

member of committee on style, 
127 

opposes Clinton, 214 

part taken by in Constitutional 
Convention, 129 

plan of constitution, 129 

plans The Federalist, 139 

proposes a constitutional con- 
vention, 108 

quarrels with Madison, 208 

report on protection, 203 

retirement of, 219 

roughly treated at public meet- 
ing, 229 

sits in last Continental Con- 
gress, 168 

speech in favour of Federal 
appointment of collectors, 38 

submits report on public debt, 
179 

supports Madison's motion for 
impost tax, 42 

thinks back lands belong to 
United States, 50 

uses United States Gazette, 235 

writes reply to Rhode Island, 

37 
Hamilton, Alexander, Jr., reports 

Monroe's death, 372 

Hamilton, Mrs. Alexander, friend- 
ly letter to Madison, 373 

Hamilton, Paul, appointed Secre- 
tary of the Navy, 304 
resigns, 329 

Hanson, A. C, charge against 
Madison, 317 

Hardy, S., signs deed of cession of 
back lands, 52 

"Harewood," W. Va., Madison 
married there, 244 

Harrison, Benjamin, educated 
at William and Mary, 13 
opposes constitution, 144 
opposition leader in ratifica- 
tion convention, 149 

Harrison, Carter H., Representa- 
tive from Virginia, 256 

Harrison, Nathaniel, a Councillor 
of State, 5 

Hartford convention, character 
of members of, 348 



Hartford convention repeats 

Madison's language, 260 
Hazen, Moses, memorial for land 

for his troops, 49 
Henderson, Alexander, appointed 
on Potomac commission, 88 
Henry, James, papers of, pur- 
chased by Madison, 342 
Henry, John, a founder of the 

American Whig Society, 15 
Henry, Patrick, approves of 
emancipation law, 72 
changes constitutional views, 

178 
favors religious assessment 

bill, 79, 80 
in Virginia convention of 1776, 

2 
opposes constitution, 142, 160 
opposes Madison, 155, 159 
opposition leader in ratifica- 
tion convention, 149 
rivalry in legislature with R. H. 

Lee, 77 
second constitutional conven- 
tion favored by, 161 
secures Madison's defeat for 

Senate, 162 
supports Clinton, 213 
tries to defeat Madison's elec- 
tion to House, 163 
Hite, Jacob, killed by Indians, 99 
Holt, John, printing press of, 

seized, i 
Hornet, The, sloop of war, arrives 

with news, 324 
Horrocks, Rev. William, Presi- 
dent of William and Mary, 14 

Horsey, Outerbridge, Quincy's 
letter to, 347 

House of Burgesses, last session 
of, I 

House of Representatives, basis 
of representation in, 119 

Houstoun, W. C, delegate to 
Annapolis, 105 

Illinois land company, claim of, 

46 
Impost tax proposed, 39 
Inauguration ball, 299 
of Madison, 299 
coat, 299 
Indiana company, claim of, 46 
formed from Virginia land 
cession, 45 



INDEX 



393 



Innes, Henry, leaxler in ratifica- 
tion convention, 149 

Irvine, William, on office seeking, 
276 

Irving, Washington, describes 
Madison, 300 

Jackson, Andrew, Madison's opin- 
ion of, 364 
Jackson, Francis James ("Copen- 
hagen"), characteristics of, 
307 
describes Madison, 308 
dismissed, 309 
instructions of, 307 
received by Federalists, 310 
Jackson, James, on speculation 

in public securities, 180 
Jameson, David, a Councillor of 

State, 25 
Jay, John, cooperates with Madi- 
son and Hamilton in writing 
The Federalist, 139 
discloses negotiations with 

Spanish Minister, 64 
instructions as Minister to 

England, 227 
nominated as Minister to Eng- 
land, 226 
solicits loans in Europe, 35 
wishes to abandon free navi- 
gation of Mississippi, 59 
Jay treaty comes up, 223 

call for papers concerning, 232 
communicated to Madison by 

Pierce Butler, 228 
President proclaims it, 231 
provisions of, 228 
Jefferson, Thomas, characteristics 
of, 272 
connection with National 

Gazette, 239 
criticizes constitution, 144 
describes bargain for capital, 

197 
drafts Kentucky resolutions, 

252 
elected Vice-President, 247 
enemies of, 272 
favors floating capital, 190 
last letter to Madison, 371 
not a nuUifier, 263 
on alien and sedition laws, 251 
on Madison's qualifications for 

Presidency, 300 
on poverty in Europe, 100 
opposed to 'assumption," 187 



JefiEerson, Thomas, signs deed of 
cession of back lands, 52 

Jenifer, Daniel, of St. Thomas, 
rnember of Potomac commis- 
sion, 89 

Johnson, Richard M., one of war 
party, 322 

Johnson,' William S., explains 
judiciary clause in constitu- 
tion, 132 

member of committee on style, 

127 
Johnson, Zachariah, opposes 

Henry in assembly, 161 
Jones, Joseph, favors bill for 

religious assessments, 79 
Jones, Dr. Walter, delegate to 

Annapolis, 93 

Representative from Virginia, 
256 
Jones, William, acts as Secretary 
of Treasury, 336 
appointed Secretary of Navy, 
.3.29 
Judiciary, supreme powers of, 
debated in Constitutional 
Convention, 130 

Kentucky asks admission as 
State, 62, 94 
attitude of, toward slavery, 74 
resolutions, by whom written, 
252 
King, Rufus, member of com- 
mittee on style, 127 9 
Minister to England, 285 
Kingston, N. Y., offered for 
capital, 190 

Lafayette, Marquis de, aid for 
free navigation of Mississippi 
enlisted, 60 
Madison's estimate of, 99 

Land companies, claims of, 46 

Lansing, John, opposes constitu- 
tion, 158 

Lay, John A., Madison's agent in 
Richmond, 375 

Lear, Mrs. Tobias, Mrs. Madison's 
letter to, 383 

Lear, Tobias, report of Washing- 
ton's last conversation, 222 

Lee, Arthur, signs deed of cession 
of back lands, 52 

Lee, Henry, assists Freneau, 237 
at Princeton with Madison, 15 



394 



INDEX 



Lee, Henry, delegate to ratifi- 
cation convention, 149 
on Madison's prospects, 302 
opposed to centralization, 204 
opposed to free navigation of 
Mississippi, 60 
Lee, Richard Bland, offers motion 
for capital, 194 
opposes "funding and assump- 
tion," 184 
opposes Patrick Henry, 10 1 
votes for "assumption," 199 
Lee, Richard Henry, attitude 
toward national government, 

78 
concerts measures to defeat 

constitution, 144, 145, 167 
delegate to Virginia convention 

of 1776, 3 
election to Senate, 214 
favors religious assessments, 

79.81 
proposes Georgetown for capi- 
tal, 191 
rivalry with Patrick Henry, 77 
Lee, Richard Henry, Jr., life of 

Richard Henry Le$, 374 
Lee, Thomas Ludwell,'' delegate 
to Virginia convention of 

1776, 3 
Lewis, Morgan, reports DeWitt 

Clinton's designs, 326 
Leland, Parson, assists Madison's 

election to ratification con- 
vention, 147 
Livingston, Edward, author of 

nullification proclamation, 

264 
calls for papers of Jay treaty, 

231 
friendly relations with Madison, 

371 " . . ,. . 

Madison s interest m his crim- 
inal code, 374 

on nullification, 2O4, 265, 266 

takes seat in Congress, 231 
Livingston, Robert R., appointed 
Minister to France, 287 

completes purchase of Louisi- 
ana, 297 

on a foreign policy, 287 

on prosperity in New England, 
345 
Longacre, J. B., makes sketch of 

Madison, 377 
Louisiana, cession of, to France 
opposed, 290 



Louisiana, cession of, demands of 

France, 293 
expedition to, projected, 291 
Lowell, John, advocates division 

of States, 348 
Lyon, Matthew, tried for sedition, 

259 

Macon, Nathaniel, on treatment 

of America, 313 
Madison, Ambrose, patents land, 

19 
Madison, Eleanor Rose Conway, 
Madison's mother, descrip- 
tion of, 22 
Madison genealogy^ 19, note 
Madison, James, a candidate for 
the House, 163 

a candidate for Senate, 162 

a founder of the American 
Whig Society, 15 

a member of the committee on 
style in Constitutional Con- 
vention, 127 

advocates tax on exports, 124 

appearance in ratification con- 
vention, 151 

appointed on committee to con- 
sider state of treasury, 35 

appointed on Potomac com- 
mission, 88 

appointments to office b5% 283 

approves views of Edward 
Livingston, 265 

approves views of Henry Clay, 
266 

as a farmer, 375 

asks loan of Nicholas Biddle, 
380 

assists Freneau to establish 
National Gazette, 237 

aware of New England dis- 
loyalty, 352 

birth of, 21 

books sent to, 373 

breaks with Washington, 219 

chairman committee to reply 
to President's speech, 230 

charges against, 316 

christening of, 21 

comes to Washington in 1801, 
274 

congratulated on peace, 359 

connection with University of 
Virginia, 368 

consults with Nicholases, Tay- 
lor and Breckinridge, 251 



INDEX 



395 



Madison, James, continues Jeffer- 
son's policy, 303 

cooperates with Hamilton and 
Jay in. The Federalist, 139 

deals with Callender, 278 

defeated for Senate, 162 

defends Catholics, 218 

defines position on public debt, 
181 

delegate to Annapolis, 93 

delegate to Virginia convention, 
of 1776, 3 

delivers first message from 
House to Senate, 169 

denounces bargaining for capi- 
tal, 194 

described by Edmund Ran- 
dolph, 4 

describes contest with Monroe, 

dismisses Armstrong, 334 
dismisses Jackson, British Min- 
ister, 308, 310 
elected a Councillor of State, 

25 

elected member House of Dele- 
gates, 77 

elected to the Assembly, 255 

elected President of Coloniza- 
tion Society, 369 

elected President Washington 
National Monument Society, 
368 

elected to Continental Congress, 
32, 62 

elected to House of Representa- 
tives, 165 

elected to ratification conven- 
tion, 146 

essay on domestic slavery, 75 

extravagance of, 274, 380 

favors discriminating tonnage 
dues, 173 

favors proportional representa- 
tion in Congress, 122 

favors tax on imports, 170 

feeling of. toward Hamilton, 211 

first meeting with Jefferson, 12 

goes to Princeton, 14 

his part in bargaining for 
capital, 199 

inauguration of, 299 

insists on free navigation of 
Mississippi, 60 

interview with Gardoqui, 63 

joins troops at Bladensburg, 
332 



Madison, James, last address of, 
to Congress, 362 

last advice to countrymen, 385 

last illness, 384 

leads Constittitional Conven- 
tion, 133 

made a citizen of France, 313 

makes agreement with Ersldne, 
306 

marries Dolly Payne Todd, 244 

member convention of 1829, 

365 

memoranda prepared for Con- 
stitutional Convention, 113 

message to Congress 181 2, 329 

moves reference Jay's report on 
Mississippi to committee, 65 

objects to Virginia constitu- 
tion of 1776, 365 

offers amendment to declara- 
tion of rights, 9 

offers provisions for copyrights 
and patents, 127 

offers provisions for sale of 
public lands and purchase of 
arsenals, etc., 127 

on Andrew Jackson, 364 

on committee to draft reply to 
Rhode Island, 37 

on Jay treaty, 229 

on Jefferson's election, 271 

on opponents in Constitutional 
Convention, 121 

on power of judiciary, 132 

on purchase of Lotiisiana, 297 

on Russian friendliness, 355 

on slavery, 70 

opinion of Virginia legislation, 
96 

opposes bill for assessments for 
Christian religion, 81 

opposes recognition of slave 
trade in constitution, 125 

opposes national bank bill, 201 

outlines plan of constitution, 
no 

partisanship of, 214 

personal appearance of, 137, 

381 
policy toward England, 285 
popularity of, 303 
position in Washington society, 

274 
prepares Jay's instructions on 

Mississippi question, 54 
prepares veto message for 

Washington on bank bill, 203 



396 



INDEX 



Madison, James, prevents passage 
of capital bill, 196 
proclamation under Mobile act, 

314 

programme of, in inaugural 
address. 354 

proposed by Washington for 
Secretary of State, 221 

proposes to stop paper money, 
36 

proposes place for capital, 127, 
189 

purchases lands on Mohawk, 
102 

purchases papers of James 
Henry, 342 

recommends enlisting an army, 
321 

reelected President, 327 

religious views of, 10 

renominated for Presidency, 
326 

reporter of Constitutional Con- 
vention, 116 

reports in favor of impost, 42 

residence while Secretary of 
State, 274 

retires temporarily, 248 

retires to Montpelier, 364 

signs bank bill, 337 

sits in last Continental Con- 
gress, 168 

social characteristics of, 273 

speech of , in convention of 1829, 
366 

speech of, in favor of national 
government, 121 

speech of, in ratification con- 
vention, 151 

speech of, in favor of impost 
tax, 39 

studies of, at college, 16 

studies law, 70 

suggestions of war by, 323 

suggests revision of back lands 
cession, 43 

supports motion for papers of 
Jay treaty, 232, 233 

teaches his brothers and sisters, 

17 
unsuccessful candidate for 

House of Delegates, 24 
urged to resign Presidency, 347 
urges central location of capital, 

195 
urges tracing title to back 

lands, 48 



Madison, James, views on slavery, 

369 

views on war, 318 

weak cabinet of, 303 

wishes to join army, 18 

writes refutation of nullifica- 
tion, 261 

writes remonstrance against 
rehgious assessments, 84 
Madison, James, Sr., father of 
Madison, influence of, 21 

death of, 271 

description of, 23 

marriage of , 20 
Madison, Mrs , in Washington, 306 

social success of, 275 
Madison, Rev. James, commends 
Madison's address for Vir- 
ginia resolutions, 257 

consecration of, 1 1 

on The Federalist, 140 

writes about University of 
Virginia, 368 
Madisons, The, a colonial familv, 

19 
Maddyson, Captain Isaac, comes 

to America, 19 
Malthus, Madison's antiripation 

of, 100 
Marbois, Barbe de, lodges in 
same house with Madison, 68 
negotiates sale of Louisiana, 
296 
Marshall, John, a leader in ratifi- 
cation convention, 149 
disapproves alien and sedition 

laws, 251 
dominates Supreme Court, 260 
favors religious assessments, 79 
opinion of Madison's eloquence, 

Martineau, Harriet, on South 
Carolina, 270 
visit to Montpelier, 369 
Martin, Luther, explains powers 
of judiciary, 130 
favors State equality, 121 
Martin, Rev. Thomas, Madison's 
tutor, 14 
dies, 17 
Maryland favors impost tax, 41 
opposes Virginia land cession, 

51 
sends no delegates to Annapolis, 

Mason, George, appointed on 
Potomac commission, 88 



INDEX 



397 



Mason, George, delegate to 
Annapolis, but fails to go, 105 

drafts Virginia constitution of 
1776, 8 

in convention of 1776, 2 

on committee to draft declara- 
tion of rights, 6 

on powers of judiciary, 131 

on Senate, 118 

on slavery, 72, 125 

opinion of Edmund Randolph, 

147. 

opposition leader in ratifica- 
tion convention, 149 

originates plan for surrender 
of back lands, 45 

protests against constitution, 
142 

reconciliation of, with Madison, 
204 

refuses to sign constitution, 
141 
Massachusetts , fast iri , proclaimed, 

344 
favors impost tax, 41 
general court, resoutions of, 349 
Governor of, refuses to furnish 

militia, 329 
Supreme Court of, declares 
militia under Governor, 344 
Maury, James, Madison's agent 

in Liverpool, 375 
Mazzei, Philip, scheme for a 

loan, 29 
McClurg, James, educated at 
William and Mary, 13 
delegate to ratification con- 
vention, 147 
reports opposition to constitu- 
tion, 145 
Mc Knight, Charles, a founder of 
American Whig Society, 15 
at Princeton with Madison, 15 
Meade, Bishop, on Episcopal 
Church in Virginia, 1 1 

Mercer, James, delegate to Vir- 
ginia convention of 1776, 2 

Mercer, John Francis, on powers 
of judiciary, 131 

Merry, Anthony, British Minister 
reports disloyalty of Federal- 
ists, 342 

Mississippi, free navigation of, 
abandonment proposed, 57, 
58, 64 
favored, 54 



Mississippi, instructions to Jay on 
subject, 54 
question brought into ratifica- 
tion convention, 154 
Mobile act, Madison puts into 

effect, 314 
Monarchists in United States, 

206 
Monroe, James, appointed Min- 
ister to France, 292 
assists Livingston, 297 
candidate for Presidency, 301 
educated at William and Mary, 

. ^3 

inaugurated as President, 364 

instructs peace commission, 

, 358 

last letter to Madison, 372 

member of Constitutional Con- 
vention of 1829, 367 

on New England Federalists, 
352 

opposes constitution, 144 ? 

opposes Madison for House, 
164 

opposition leader in ratification 
convention, 149 

reports approach of enemy 
on Washington, 331 

Secretary of State, 319, 320 

Secretary of War, 328 

treats with Callender, 280 

treaty with England negotiated 
by, 301 

Montpelier, grounds at, 378 
hospitality, 376 
house, 376 

part of, deeded to Madison, 75 
tract known as, 20 

Moore, John, Madison's sponsor, 
21 

Moore, Rebecca, Madison's spon- 
sor, 21 

Morris, Gouvemeur, approves 
Hamilton's plan of govern- 
ment, 130 

influence of, in Constitutional 
Convention, 134 

member of committee on style, 
127 

on judiciary, 131 

on Senate, 118 

proposes bargain between east 
and south, 124 
Morris, Robert, on authority of 
Congress, 32 



398 



INDEX 



Morris, Robert, reports on finan- 
cial situation, 34 

Muter, George, reports western 
sentiment on Mississippi 
question, 61 

National debt (see Public Debt) 

National feeling",- lack of, among 
public men, 205 

National Gazette, The, 235 ; 
ceases publication, 239 

Naturalization, debate on, 217 

Nelson, Hugh, opposes constitu- 
tion, 144 

New England confederacy pro- 
posed, 348 
prosperity in, 346 

New Hampshire delegates to 
Annapolis fail to attend, 105 
favors impost duty, 41 

New Jersey protests against 
Virginia land cession, 51 

New York, cession of back lands, 

49 
New York Chamber of Commerce 

approves Jay treaty, 229 
New York favors impost duty, 41 

ratifies constitution, 157 
New York City as temporary 

capital, 191 
Nicholas, George, delegate to 
ratification convention, 149 
fires first shot of revolution in 

Virginia, i 
on effect of The Federalist, 141 
opposes abolition in Kentucky, 

74 
opposes "assumption," 187 
opposes religious assessments, 

83 
supports call for papers on Jay 

treaty, 232 
Nicholas, John, Representative 

from Virginia, 256 
Nicholas, Robert Carter, delegate 

to Virginia convention of 

1776, 3 
Nicholas, Wilson Cary, opposes 
religious assessments, 80, 83 
and "George plan campaign 
against religious assessments 
bill, 84 
North Carolina accedes to con- 
stitution, 178 
favors impost tax, 41 
i-cfuses to ratify constitution, 

157 



North Carolina sends no dele- 
gates to Annapolis conven- 
tion, 105 
Nullification, discussed in 1821 in 
South Carolina, 267 
Madison's opposition to, 367 
Madison writes refutation of, 

374 
Nullification party, doctrine of, 
261 



Octagon House, Madison moves 

to, 333 
Office seeking under Jefferson, 

276 
Ohio formed from back lands, 45 
Orders in Council, British, 305 
Osgood, Samuel, on committee to 

consider state of treasury, 35 



Page, John, a Councillor of State, 

25 
Page, Robert, supports call for 

papers on Jay treaty, 232 

Parish, David, assists treasury, 

335 

Parties, difference between, de- 
scribed by Tucker, 206 

Parties, difference between, on 
constitutional construction, 
204 

Patents, power to grant, proposed 
by Madison, 127 

Patterson, Charles, instructions 
of, 6 

Patterson, Judge William, atti- 
tude toward sedition law, 25^ 

Payne, Mrs John, lodgings kept 

by, 243 
Peale, C. W., essay by, in National 
Gazette, 238 
paints portrait of Madison, 377 
Pell, PhiHp, last member to 
appear in Constitutional Con- 
gress, 168 
Pendleton, Edmund, a leader in 
ratification convention, 149 
attitude toward independence, 

2 
chosen president of ratification 

convention, 149 
opposed to bank law, 210 
president of Virginia conven- 
tion, 2 
Pennsylvania favours impost tax, 
41 



INDEX 



399 



Philadelphia convention (see 
Constitutional Convention) 
Jay treaty burned at, 229 
Pickering, Timothy, approves 
alien and sedition laws, 251 
John Adams' opinion of, 249 
on charges against Madison, 

317 
on New England confederacy, 

34S 
plots with British Minister, 342 
Pierce, William, describes Madi- 
son in convention, 134 
Pinckney, Charles, letter to 
Madison on old age, 371 
on Senate, 118 
Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth, on 
Senate, 118 
praises eastern States, 126 
Pinckney, Thomas, negotiates 

treaty with Spain, 289 
Pinkney, William, treaty with 
England negotiated by, 301 
" Porcupine, Peter," editor, 240 
Port Conway, birthplace of Madi- 
son, 20 
Porter, Charles, defeats Madison 

for House of Delegates, 24 
Potomac commission meets at 
Mt. Vernon, 90 
Company incorporated, 88 
Maryland members meet, 89 
River, navigation of, 87 
site on, offered for capital, 190, 
197 
Presbyterians, increase of, in 

Virginia, 79 ■ '♦ 

Primogeniture abolished in Vir- 
ginia, 23 
Princeton College, classmates of 

Madison, 15 
Providence, R. I., Federalist senti- 
ment in, 344 
Public debt, Madison chairman 
committee to consider, 179 
of what comprised, 179 

Quakers in Virginia form aboli- 
tion society, 73 

Quincy, Josiah, friendly relations 
with Madison, 371 
suggests secession, 346 

Randolph, Beverly, on "funding 
and assumption," 186 

Randolph, Edmund, appointed 
on Potomac commission, 88 



Randolp, Edmund, delegate to 
Annapolis, 93 
delegate to ratification con- 
vention, 2 
describes delegates to Virginia 

convention of 1776, 2 
heads Virginia delegation to 
Constitutional Convention, 
no 
"not yet a strict American," 

205 
offers Virginia plan to conven- 
tion, 119 
on slavery, 72 

refuses to sign constitution, 
141 
Randolph, John, of Roanoke, 

opposes Madison, 302 
Randolph, Mary, sends book to 

Madison, 393 
Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, 
defends Jefferson from charge 
of being a nullifier, 263 
Randolph, Peyton, educated at 
William and Mary, 13 
President of Continental Con- 
gress, I 
Ratification convention, delegates 

to, 147 
Read, George, approves of Ham- 
ilton's plan, 130 
delegate to Annapolis conven- 
tion, 105 
Read, Jacob, writes to Madison to 

btiy his slaves, 73 
Religious assessments bill, de- 
feated, 86 
bill postponed, 83 
Religious liberty, clause of decla- 
ration of rights providing, 

8,9 
Madison's amendment provid- 
ing for, 8 

Remonstrance against bill for 
religious assessments, Madi- 
son writes, 84 

Republican party, two schools 
of, 276 

Rhea, John, asks annexation of 
territory, 314 

Rhode Island delegates to Annap- 
olis convention fail to attend, 

fails to send delegates to Con- 
stitutional Convention, 109 
Rliode Island opposes impost 
tax, 41 



400 



INDEX 



Riedesel, Baroness, anecdotes of, 
382 

Ringgold, Tench, reports Monroe's 
last message, 373 

Rodney, Cassar A., continued as 
Attorney-General, 304 

Ronald, William, delegate to An- 
napolis, 93 

Ross, David, delegate to Annapo- 
lis, 93 
fails to attend, 105 

Rumsey, James, Madison's ac- 
quaintance with, 97 

Rush, Richard, declines appoint- 
ment as Secretary of the 
Treasury' , 396 

Russell, Jonathan, commissioner 
for peace, 356 
reports French seizures, 312 

Russian mediation, 355 

Rutledge, John, nomination for 
Chief Justice rejected, 260 
on committee to consider state 

of treasury, 35 
on Senate, 118 

Salomon, Haym, money-lender, 

68 
Sanderson's Lives of the Signers, 

Madison's interest in, 374 
Schureman, James, delegate to 

Annapolis, 105 
Scott, Thomas, offers resolution 

for Susquehanna for capital, 

Sedgwick, Theodore, amends re- 
ply to President's speech, 230 
defends bank bill, 202 
proposes provisional army, 226 

Sedition law, attitude of judges 
toward, 259 

Seney, J., presents Maryland's 
offer for site for capital, 193 

Serurier, French Minister, on 
repeal of French decrees, 312 
reports war pending, 324 

Sherman, Roger, favours modified 
"assumption," 184 

Slaughter, Dr. Thomas, Madison's 
physician, 384 

Slavery, despondent views of 
Madison on, 369 

Slavery, leading Virginians on, 
71 

Smith, John Blair, Madison's 
friend at Princeton, 15 



Smith, Melancthon, agent of 

Northern Republicans, 213 
Smith, Meriwether, delegate to 
Annapolis convention, 93 
fails to attend, 105 
Smith, Mrs. Samuel Harrison, 
reports Clay's opinion of 
Madison, 316 
Smith, Robert, disloyalty of, 319 
dismissal of, 319 
selected for Secretary of State, 

. 303 
Smith, Samuel, opposes admin- 
istration's bill, 321 
Smith, Samuel Stanhope, a 
founder of the American 
Whig Society, 15 
Madison's friend at Princeton, 

Smith, William, argues against 
discriminating tonnage dues, 

225 
defends bank bill, 202 
favours assumption plan, 185 
speculation in public funds, 
charges made, 180 
South Carolina favors "assump- 
tion," 185 
favours impost tax, 42 
sends no delegates to Annapolis 
convention, 105 
Spain, alliance with, proposed, 54 
attitude toward free naviga- 
tion of Mississippi, 60 
relations with, 288 
treaty with, for navigation of 
Mississippi, 288 
Sparks, Jared, Madison assists 

him, 374 
State Department, condition of, 
283 
records of, taken away, 332 
Stoddart, Benjamin, on New 

England Federalists, 345 
Stone, Thomas, member of Poto- 
mac commission, 89 
Strong, Governor Caleb, appoints 
Federalist militia officers, 341 
orders fast, 344 
St. Thomas, parish where Mont- 

pelier was situated, 22 
Stuart, Gilbert, paints portrait of 

Madison, 377 
Supreme Court, attitude toward 
sedition law, 259 
not independent of politics, 
259 



/ 



INDEX 



401 



TallejTand, Due de, makes offers 

for Louisiana, 295 
Tariff, Hamilton's report on, 203 
Taylor. Dr. Charles, Madison's 

physician, 384 
Taylor ,'H., on slavery, 74 
Taylor, John, of Caroline, against 

religious assessments, 80 
introduces Virginia resolutions, 

252 
Taylor, Zachary, offense of, at 

Madison, 379 
Tazewell, Henry, favours religious 

legislation, 79 
Tertium Quids, party of, 302 
Thornton, Dr. William, appointed 

in charge of patent business, 

283 
Ticknor, George, sends book to 

Madison, 373 ' 
Tobacco, sales 01, 375 
Todd, Dolly Payne, description 

of, 244 
Todd, John Payne, misconduct of, 

379 
Tonnage act advocated by Madi- 
son, 224 
Tonnage dues, discrimination 

against Great Britain urged, 

172 
Trenton, capital at, proposed, 195 
Tucker, George, describes parties, 

206 
Madison assists in literary 

work, 373 
Tucker, St. George, delegate to 

Annapolis, 105 
on disloyalty in Massachusetts, 

341 

Tucker, William Tudor, favours 
"assumption," 185 

Turberville, George Lee, opposes 
Henry, 161 
reports on opposition to consti- 
tution, 145 

Tyler, John, opposition leader in 
ratification convention, 149 

Union party in South Carolina, 
270 

United States Gazette, The, news- 
paper, 235 

University of Virginia, Madison's 
connection with, 368 

Vandalia Company, claims of, 46 
Venable, Abraham B., Represen- 
tative from Viriginia, 256 



Vermont, Federalists in, 344 
Vincennes, inhabitants of, loot 

Spanish store, 63 
Vining, John, defends bank bill, 

202 
urges Delaware site for capital, 

195 

Virginia and Maryland, boundary 
between, 87 

Virginia cession of back lands 
accepted, 52 
conditions of, 46 
opposition to, 47 

Virginia convention. _j^i i^f^ , 
instructs delegSt'eft— toCon- 
gress to declare for independ- 
ence, 5 

Virginia favors impost tax, 41 

Virginia plan, the, offered Consti- 
tutional Convention, 119 

Virginia resolutions of 1799, ad- 
dress in support of, 254 
replies to, 256 
substance of, 253 

Voss, Nicholas, rents house to 
Madison, 274 

Waddel, Rev. James, preaches 

near Gordons ville, 22 
Wagner, Richard, chief clerk, 
charged with Federalism, 282 
retained, 283 
Walker, Thomas, a Councill 

of State, 25 
Wallace, Caleb, Madison's fric. <* 

at Princeton, 15 
War Department, records of, 

taken away, 332 
War with England, discontent 
with conduct of, 330 
opposed by Madison's friends, 
340 • 
War with France, contemplated 

by Madison, 326 
Washington, capture of, 331 
Washington, George, breaks with 
Madison, 219 
confers with Potomac commis- 
sion, 90 
confidence in Madison, 219 
dislikes Jay treaty, 230 
favours religious legislation, 79 
hesitates to sign bank bill, 203 
interest in navigation of Poto- 
mac, 88 
naturally a Federalist, 221 
proclamation of neutrality 
criticized by Madison, 216 



' -s- 



e^ 



^■5<<. 






.V^ 



f^ 



.^ 



\^ ..y" 






^. .c^ 



vO o^ 



-t-. 



A, r. 



'A V 



A-^" 



>0^ 



x^ 



> '/>- 



^ ^^ 









,^-> "'''< 



■> "^c^. 



